Three Years and Comanche Creek

First, a word from our sponsor... To the right is a link that will take you to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation page for donations. My 5 year old grandson, Cayden, suffers from this disease. On May 18 there will be a fundraising walk-a-thon for CF. Please consider making even a small donation. Large ones are better, of course.

Cayden has lived with CF all his life. He is a real trooper, and a very happy child. Thanks to his wonderful parents, he is able to play baseball and do many other activities, until he gets sick. Then he is off to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for a few days to have IV antibiotics. He never complains. His big sister also helps take care of him, and they are best friends.

Cayden and my family do not receive anything directly from your donations. It all goes to find a cure for CF. Many advances in the battle have been made in the past few years, and some strains of the disease now have drugs that actually work. Not Cayden's...yet...but they are getting there. If you can spare $5 or more, please make a donation. The web site makes it easy to do. That wasn't too bad, for my annual appeal. Thanks.

Today is the third anniversary of The Bit Actors Blog. I have had fun writing it, and I have learned a lot during my research. It causes you to think in new terms as you watch an old movie, even one you've seen before. And I hope I have inspired you to look at the small parts, the Bit Actors, who make movies great.

I have also met quite a few like-minded people, especially in the Classic Movie Blog Association. Please visit the CMBA site and you will be directed to many well written movie blogs with loads more info about some great movies. But this blog is the only one dedicated to Bit Actors!

Writing has also made me recall memories of some of the wonderful people I have met, famous or otherwise. Margaret Hamilton was a delight, and Henry Brandon was always ready to make you smile. There are few who know who little Jimmy Murphy was. I spent some quality time with him in Blackpool, England, not far from where Stan Laurel was born. Jimmy was Stan's valet for many years. He wasn't famous, but his stories were classic, and my memory of him is cherished.

The last year has been a busy time in my life, and I have not been able to write as frequently as I would have liked. I apologize for that, and will try to get to the blog as often as possible. Enough of that...let's talk about Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963).

Mt. Soledad, by Allen Hefner

My wife and I visited San Diego last year for a short vacation and to visit our son. It is a beautiful city, filled with history. Well, not as much history as Philadelphia, but it is on the left coast and it took us (Americans) a while to get there.

The monument on the hill above La Jolla, Mount Soledad, stands high and can be seen from all around. We were driving along the coast and we just had to go up there. The view along the California coast was great, but I noticed, all around the base of the Easter Cross, memorial plaques to California men and women who served our country in the armed forces. Among them was the most decorated hero of World War II, Audie Murphy (1925 - 1971). Murphy became an actor, but that career pales in comparison to his actions in the war. From the plaque on Mt. Soledad, "The most decorated combat soldier of World War II. Audie has been credited with killing over 240 of the enemy while wounding and capturing many others. Scores of American lives were saved."

That brings me to the movie, that I just watched last week. Murphy made 47 movies and did some TV work in about 20 years. Gunfight at Comanche Creek was toward the end of his career, and I enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed recognizing all the Bit Actors in the film.

Gunfight is presented like a documentary about the National Detective Agency and how they work. The was no National Detective Agency, but it bears quiet a resemblance to Pinkerton. Murphy plays a detective who goes undercover to foil a plot.

The film is narrated by Reed Hadley (1911 - 1974) of "Racket Squad" and "The Public Defender" fame on television in the early 1950s. Hadley has 129 titles listed on IMDb. Look for him in the W.C. Fields classic The Bank Dick (1940) as Francois, the tall actor. His deep voice is right up there with other great voices like Basil Rathbone and Andy Devine and was perfect for narration.

Being a "Star Trek" kinda guy, I was a bit put off by DeForest Kelley (1920 - 1999) playing a bad guy...and the main bad guy at that! I guess he had second thoughts and went back to school to become a Star Fleet doctor. Kelley started acting on film in 1945 and on the small screen shortly after that. His list of work is very long, but I would have to classify him as a Bit Actor, if not for "Star Trek" making him a star. He is the kind of actor who plays Morgan Earp, while Burt Lancaster plays Wyatt. Westerns made him feel most comfortable, and "Star Trek" was just a western set in space.

Eddie Quillan (1907 - 1990) had a very small part as the hotel clerk. I think he is only seen for a minute or two. Eddie was in The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and played Connie, one of the displaced farm workers. He has well over 200 roles in movies and TV over a six decade career. Eddie did a series of comedy shorts in the late 1940s and early 50s with Wally Vernon. I hope TCM will add some of them to their Extras.

And then there was Thomas Browne Henry (1907 - 1980) who played the head of the detective agency. Henry has almost 200 roles listed, and you will recognize his face instantly if you ever watch an old Sci-Fi movie or anything on television. Look for him in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), The Thing that Couldn't Die (1958) and Space Master X-7 (1958). He usually plays a military officer in charge.

Well, three years of blogging and some wonderful movies to talk about. See Gunfight at Comanche Creek, or Audie's next film The Quick Gun (1964) if you want a treat for Mother's Day. Both are very good westerns. And I'll see you soon. Please let me know what you think.

Lloyd Corrigan

Here is another face you will know, but perhaps not his name. Lloyd Corrigan (1900 - 1969) worked in entertainment for 41 of his 69 years.

He started in 1925 as a bit actor in a silent film called The Splendid Crime. It starred Bebe Daniels (1901 - 1971) and Neil Hamilton (1899 - 1984) and was directed by Cecil's brother, William C. de Mille (1878 - 1955). The pay was probably not very good for a young man just starting out, and he found that he was better suited to writing. From 1926 to 1939 he would write and direct films, rather than act in them.

He did make one more silent film of note. He had small part in It (1927), which starred Clara Bow (1905 - 1965) and was the source of her nickname, The It Girl.

As a writer, his most famous work would have been the three Fu Manchu films starring Warner Oland (1879 - 1938). The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929), The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930), and Daughter of the Dragon (1931) which he also directed. He was a writer or director on eight films that starred Bebe Daniels and nine with Neil Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, went on to become Commissioner Gordon on the "Batman" TV show.

In 1939 Lloyd decided he had enough behind the scene work and moved back into the camera's field of view. He would stay there for the rest of his life.

Corrigan was in Young Tom Edison (1940) with Mickey Rooney, which I just watched on TCM. (Thanks!) That same year he made 12 other films, including The Ghost Breakers with Bob Hope, and The Return of Frank James with Henry Fonda.

In 1941 he starts off in Men of Boy's Town with Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney and the great Bit Actor Bobs Watson (1930 - 1999). This would also be the year he starts work in the Boston Blackie series as Arthur Manleder in Confessions of Boston Blackie. Chester Morris played Blackie, as he did in 14 installments. This was the second movie in that line, and Lloyd would be in six of them.

I would like to see some of Corrigan's lesser movies from this era. A look at the cast of North to the Klondike (1942) shows Broderick Crawford, Andy Devine, Lon Chaney, Jr. and Keye Luke. It has to be a good movie. That same year he appears in The Great Man's Lady, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea, and another ten movies! This decade, including the war years, has Corrigan in quite a variety of movies, from Hitler's Children to the Roy Rogers film, King of the Cowboys, and some stinkers like Captive Wild Woman and Tarzan's Desert Mystery. Along with Hitler's Children he made other war/propaganda films, including Passport to Destiny and Rosie the Riveter.

There is not much to write about during the later half of that decade. She-Wolf of London (1946), and Homicide for Three (1948) were two movies for only hard-core 1940s movie buffs. He did appear in Blondie Hits the Jackpot (1949) with Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake.

After a few better movies with bigger stars in the early 1950s, such as My Friend Irma Goes West (1950 with Martin and Lewis, Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) with Jose Ferrer, and Son of Paleface (1952) with Bob Hope, Lloyd starts work in television.

TV brought Lloyd mostly guest spots in teleplays. In 1954 he was cast as a regular on "Willy" starring June Havoc (1912 - 2010). I don't remember that series, or ever hearing about it. His TV appearances were varied, but we do see him in a lot of westerns. He has some recurring roles in "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp," "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," and "Happy" starring Ronnie Burns.

In 1963 he plays the mayor in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, along with a cast of thousands (of comedians). Corrigan's final regular work on TV was in "Hank" starring Dick Kallman (Who?) and he ends his work in "Petticoat Junction."

I guess I remember him for all those little television roles. I recently saw him in "Have Gun, Will Travel" and it jogged my memory. I may go back and find some of the Boston Blackie films, where he did some serious character acting as the millionaire. When you see his face, you will remember Lloyd Corrigan.

Hal LeRoy, Tap Dancer

I was watching one of my favorite things on Turner Classic Movies the other night, "TCM Extras." I sometimes find myself tuning in to TCM about 20 minutes before the next film is scheduled, just to watch for an Extra. I realize how much work it is to maintain a web site, but I do think Turner could do a better job of listing the wonderful short films they use as fillers between features.

They should also offer these great shorts in collections in their store. I searched the store for 'extras' and found E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982) and a series called "Extras" starring Ricky Gervais (b. 1961) that was on television a few years ago. No joy there either.

Back to my viewing experience. The short musical film I caught was The Knight is Young (1938) starring Hal Le Roy (1913 - 1985) and June Allyson (1917 - 2006). This was Allyson's eighth film, all of her work on screen was in shorts (short films, I mean) up until then.

June is trapped in her apartment because she doesn't have the rent money, and Hal is a sign painter she can see from the window. Hal shows June what tap dancing is all about, and later returns to rescue her through the window. Before he comes back, June has a fantasy day-dream about a Scotsman on the new sign Hal just painted, and we enjoy a dance routine by the Gae Foster Girls. June and Hal then go dancing at the Sign Painters' Ball...all in 19 minutes, including a surprise ending.

Two-reelers like this are a load of fun, requiring no thought at all. Just sit back and enjoy. They should be required viewing at every movie theater, taking the place of some of the ads.

When this short started on TV, I thought I remembered Hal Le Roy's name. Sure enough, I had the pleasure of meeting Hal at a Son's of the Desert event in 1982. Since he never became a big movie star, he fits in perfectly here as a Bit Actor.

Hal Le Roy was a vaudevillian, and he played all over. He started dancing on the stage at age 15 and was an instant hit. He was popular through the 1930s at music halls including Radio City, and would occasionally get a dancing role in a movie. His film career was not as good as his Broadway or vaudeville work.

Hal only appeared in 22 films, mostly shorts, and a few television shows. His first feature was Wonder Bar (1934) starring Al Jolson (1886 - 1950), Kay Francis (1905 - 1968), and Dolores del Rio (1904 - 1983). Hal was in black face, but Jolson appeared that way many times. This film was released just a few months before the Hays Code censored anything untoward on the screen. With Dick Powell, Guy Kibbee and Hugh Herbert also in the cast, this is a film I want to see.

Hal's next film gives him a starring role in a feature. Harold Teen (1934) also includes Clara Blandick (1880 - 1962) who would go on the become Auntie Em in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

In 1937 he worked with June Allyson in Swing for Sale. I guess it had some swing dancing. He would also work with June in Ups and Downs (1937), which was Phil Silvers' (1911 - 1985) first screen appearance, and The Prisoner of Swing (1938) which includes Eddie Foy, Jr.

Hal worked with Jimmy Durante (1893 - 1980) in Start Cheering (1938); danced with Betty Hutton (1921 - 2007) in her first film, Public Jitterbug No. 1 (1939); and his final film was Too Many Girls (1940) with Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Ann Miller and Frances Langford.

Le Roy's dancing style has been likened to Ray Bolger. Both were incredibly thin and seemed to be made of rubber. Hal did a great job of incorporating dance into the most unlikely stories. He was a washing machine salesman who excelled by dancing his sales pitch!

I don't remember much about my conversation with Hal or our time together. I did take his photo for you to enjoy. Hal passed away just three years after I met him.

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Robert Young, with an H.

Here is a Bit Actor that had a good start, hit some tricky obstacles, went on to make some good movies, and died young. Robert Young, that is, Robert H. Young (1917 - 1951) was known in his later career as Clifton Young.

Clifton started out billed as Bobby Young in some Our Gang comedies as one of Hal Roach's Rascals. He was known as 'Bonedust' for some reason. His first short was called Better Movies (1925) and it starred Joe Cobb and the rest.

Bobby was able to work through the change from silents to talkies while at Hal Roach Studios. His first talkie was School's Out (1930). He also saw the switch of distribution of the Our Gang films from Pathe to MGM, which happened around the same time.

The 1926 silent short called Thundering Fleas was a Hal Roach comedy starring Our Gang, but it also included Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase and James Finlayson. This was one of many films Hardy made without Stan Laurel, although they were being billed as a team by that time. Roach kept Stan and Ollie on separate contracts for almost their entire stay at his company, so he could do what he wanted with them.

Toward the end of his Our Gang career, Bobby got to work with Jackie Cooper. I always wonder how associations like that affect the future of young actors. Bobby's final short with this group was (as far as I can tell) Little Daddy in 1931. He made at least 19 Our Gang films.

Now you have Robert Young who is 14 years old in 1931. He would find out that he couldn't continue his career with that name. Robert G. Young (1907 - 1998) has just made his debut in the Charlie Chan film, The Black Camel (1931). Since Bobby was never billed as Robert, he chose to use Clifton as his stage name. It was his mother's maiden name.

The name didn't really come in to play until later. Young made several films in the 1930's, but he was uncredited in them. He went off to war, as all 24 year olds did, and started acting again in 1945. His post-war debut was in a 13 episode serial called The Master Key (1945) starring Milburn Stone (1904 - 1908). Stone, of course, would become famous as Doc Adams on "Gunsmoke." Young was in episodes 7 and 8. The serial had a great tag line, "Government agents battle a gang of Nazis who are trying to use the Orotron machine, which can turn seawater into gold."

One thing about writing a blog like mine is that I bump into films I think I would love to see. I guess I will have to keep looking, but there are so many. Clifton had a small part in one of those missed films I am putting on my list. Deception (1946) is a Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains Film Noir with Young as a taxi driver. Could it get any better? It even has Benson Fong, another great Bit Actor.

In the 1940's there was a series of short, instructional comedy films with a character called Joe McDoakes. They starred George O'Hanlon and totaled 63 entries that extended to 1956. Clifton Young would show up in several of them from So You Want to Play the Horses (1946) to So You Want to be an Actor (1949). O'Hanlon would go on to fame as the voice of George Jetson in "The Jetsons."

Young is now employed as a contract player at Warner Brothers. Not bad. He is working with Ann Sheridan, Robert Mitchum, Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, and other big stars. I'll stick my neck out and say that his finest role (possibly after some work in Our Gang) was as Baker in Dark Passage (1947) starring Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart.

Also in Dark Passage is Bruce Bennett, who I wrote about recently. Young and Bennett also worked together in Nora Prentiss (1947) and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Some great films, even though the roles for Young were small. In Treasure, he played a bum in the flop house and had no lines.

Clifton also made a few westerns. His best was most likely, Blood on the Moon (1948) starring Robert Mitchum and Barbara Bel Geddes. Another film I should look for.

The rest of Clifton's films are watchable. No blockbusters, but good films I would turn on if they were on TV. Borderline (1950) with Fred MacMurray; Bells of Coronado and Trail of Robin Hood, both 1950 Roy Rogers films; to his last film, Love Nest (1951), with Marilyn Monroe. I just saw that one, and I never saw Clifton in it.

Sadly, Clifton Young died while smoking in bed at age 33. He had quite a career in his short life, and he brought his talent to some great films, including my favorite film, Dark Passage.

Herman Brix A.K.A. Bruce Bennett

I just had the pleasure of seeing The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) again. It is a movie that exists on several levels. Not only is it a fine action picture, but it can be seen as a real study of human nature. I'll leave the analysis to the other movie blogs, though. I am here to review Bit Actors.

In a fairly small part of this very big movie, we have Bruce Bennett (1909 - 2007) playing Cody, the unwanted and ill-fated companion of three prospectors.

Bruce was an athlete his entire life. He won the Olympic silver medal for the shot put in 1928. He could have gone on to win many more medals but he injured himself making his first movie, Touchdown (1931). His place in the Olympics was taken over by Johnny Weissmuller (1904 - 1984), who went on to become another Tarzan. At the time, Bruce was still known by his real name, Herman Brix.

Herman decided on a movie career. His early screen time is filled with roles, logically, as an athlete. He was a football player, a wrestler, a student, a man in the bar, it all fit at the time. He worked with Jack Oakie, Bing Crosby, W. C. Fields, Ted Healy and his Stooges, and others in those early days.

His first big film had him in a small part. He did appear in Treasure Island in 1934 as a man in the tavern. In 1935 Herman had his biggest break. A serial called The New Adventures of Tarzan was to be filmed in Guatemala. And Herman would have the title role.

Unfortunately, the serial was a financial disaster. Brix and the rest of the cast and crew never made much more than having their expenses paid for all their effort. BTW, Juggs played Nkima the chimp, which was his second film appearance after working with Laurel and Hardy in Dirty Work (1933).

Herman appeared in quite a few films between Tarzan and the late 1930s, but few were notable. He was a Bit Actor in Bit Films and serials. He was typecast in his Tarzan persona and had difficulty convincing studios to let him do much else. He decided to change his name to Bruce Bennett.

As far as I can tell, the first film with Bruce Bennett in the credits is My Son is Guilty (1939) starring Bruce Cabot of King Kong (1933) fame. But the name change didn't seem to make a lot of difference in his career. The films he works on are not all great movies. He even made four Three Stooges shorts as Bennett.

But it isn't all bleak and there are some good films where he shows that he does have acting talent. He is even a co-star in a few films of the era, though not blockbusters. The 1940s were the era of film noir and great war stories. Bruce was in 21 films during the WWII years, in spite of serving in the military himself.

It is also in this time frame that Bruce worked with Humphrey Bogart on four films. The first was Invisible Stripes (1939) with George Raft in the lead and Bennett uncredited. Next was Sahara (1943) and Bennett is near the top of the cast as Waco Hoyt, the tank crewman who risks his neck to go off in search of help.

Without question, my favorite of the four Bennett/Bogart films is Dark Passage (1947). This is my favorite Bogart film, and perhaps my favorite film. It has everything...Bogart with Bacall, a real film noir style, and a perfect cast with Agnes Moorehead as the bad guy you can easily hate.

Bit Actors Tom D'Andrea and Leonard Breman filled in the needed color for a great movie, and Houseley Stevenson put 'noir' in the film. (Read about D'Andrea and Breman by clicking on their names or the Dark Passage link in my label list to the right.) Bruce Bennett plays Bob, Bacall's former boyfriend who nobly steps aside for Bogart. I am still trying to find that bar in Peru! GREAT FILM!

Of course, his last film with Bogart is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). What more can I say?

One other standout film for Bennett in the forties was Mildred Pierce (1945) starring Joan Crawford. After Treasure, his acting career would go downhill (again). In the next three decades he would appear in many films and television shows, but only a few are worth mentioning.

Task Force (1949)
Angels in the Outfield (1951)
Strategic Air Command (1955)
Love Me Tender (1956, Sorry! I had to put that in for Elvis fans.)

But, as an actor you should know something is wrong with your career when you start taking pictures called The Cosmic Man (1959), The Alligator People (1959), and The Fiend of Dope Island (1961).

Bruce Bennett's last American film was The Clones (1973). He did appear in many TV shows and that kept his career moving forward, and the income would have been decent. It is said that he had an interest in parachuting and his last jump was at age 92. He stayed fit, he was good in business, and I put him in the ranks of some of the best Bit Actors.

Red Ryder!

I certainly hope everyone got the official Red Ryder carbine-action, 200 shot, range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and the thing which tells time for Christmas. I asked for one, but I got the movie instead. I really can't use a BB gun in my condo, so the movie and the sequel (along with a bottle of liquid entertainment from Kentucky) was just fine for me.

Of course I am talking about A Christmas Story (1983) which has become a holiday classic in many households. But, who was Red Ryder? Come with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear...sorry, that was "The Lone Ranger."

Red Ryder started life as a comic strip in 1938, which became syndicated and incredibly popular. A lot of marketing was added to the name, hence the BB gun that is still available from Daisy.

The next important reincarnation was the 1940 movie serial, The Adventures of Red Ryder, starring Don 'Red' Barry (1912 - 1980). Barry was quite an accomplished actor in his long career, but much of his work came as a guest star on television. He was in everything from "Dragnet" in 1955 to "Knots Landing" in 1980.

In his early days, he was a regular in the Dr. Kildare series of films, and he certainly made his mark in a load of B westerns. In fact, you would be best to look for any of his early work, rather than the movies he made later in life. Blazing Stewardesses (1975), Dr. Dracula (1978), etc. Some were better than those, but his parts were usually small and many times uncredited.

Also in the original Ryder series was Tommy Cook (b. 1930) as Little Beaver, and Noah Beery (1882 - 1946) as Ace Hanlon. In 1941 Cook worked in another serial called Jungle Girl. After working on the Red Ryder radio serial in 1942, he made quite a few movies in the 1940s and 1950s and then moved into TV. As an adult, he had difficulty getting acting roles and his popularity and acting career ended. Noah Beery's part as one of the villains in this serial does not continue into later films.

In 1944 we see Bill Elliott (1904 - 1965) take over for the first of a series of Red Ryder movies for Republic. This one is called Tucson Raiders, and Little Beaver is now played by Bobby Blake (b. 1933), a former Our Gang kid who managed a good career before turning weird in his personal life.

Elliott made 16 Red Ryder films, plus over 240 other films, mostly before Red Ryder. He was known as Wild Bill Elliott for much of his career after starring in The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok in 1938. He made 13 films as that character.

For the 16 Elliott/Ryder  films, we also see Alice Fleming (1882 - 1952) as Red's aunt in the entire series. Peggy Stewart (b. 1923) appears in many of the films. She had been married to Red Barry for a few years, and she is still working. Look for her in the Adam Sandler (b. 1966) film That's My Boy (2012). It amazes me that she could be in so many of the Ryder series and play different parts each time. Didn't anyone notice?

The final Ryder film with Bill Elliott was Conquest of Cheyenne in 1946.

Next up in the Red Ryder role is Allan 'Rocky' Lane (1909 - 1973). The Rocky Lane character would reappear 36 times for Allan in his best remembered B westerns from 1947 to 1953. Bobby Blake continued as Little Beaver, and Peggy Stewart appears several times in the Lane/Ryder movies.

Santa Fe Uprising (1946) is the first of seven Red Ryder films for Lane, and Red's aunt this time is played by Martha Wentworth (1889 - 1974). Lane ended his stint in Marshal of Cripple Creek (1947), and this was also the last Ryder flick for Republic Pictures.

Jim Bannon (1911 - 1984) finishes the Red Ryder film franchise at Equity Pictures with four movies in 1949. Ride, Ryder, Ride through Cowboy and the Prizefighter. Little Beaver is played by Don 'Little Brown Jug' Kay Reynolds (b. 1937 or '38...) the son of a horse trainer and a great trick rider in his time. Jug only made a few films, all westerns.

Ryder's aunt is now played by Marin Sais (1890 - 1971) and Peggy Stewart is still along for the Ryde in various roles. You may notice the character of Ace Hanlon returning in Roll, Thunder, Roll (1949). This time it is played by Glenn Strange (1899 - 1973) who went on to tend bar at The Longbranch for Miss Kitty in "Gunsmoke."

"Red Ryder" would continue on television in a few episodes starring Allan Lane and Jim Bannon, but by the early 1950s it had run it's course. Information on these episodes is sparse and I am not an expert here. Please write about your memories of Red Ryder on TV.

All of the actors mentioned above, with the possible exception of Jug Reynolds, were Bit Actors of the highest acclaim. None of them have less than 90 titles in their credits and many have more than 200. The fact that Red Ryder was brought back into the public consciousness by Jean Shepherd's (1921 - 1999) story and later movie, is just one more reason for classic film lovers to reach out to the younger generation and show them the background that will enhance their understanding of the new story.

Talk it up with your kids. Maybe they won't shoot their eye out.

The Greatest Show On Earth

With a title like The Greatest Show on Earth, it could only be about the circus. I took my grand kids to the circus about two years ago. No big top tent, just an air conditioned sports stadium. But there were plenty of acts and animals that made it quite a spectacle. And it was the real circus, not a new age Cirque du Soleil. I would love to see Cirque du Soleil, but it is too expensive. Ringling provides a wonderful, affordable experience.

Back to the movie. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) was Cecil B. DeMille's (1881 - 1959) second to last work as director, and it won the Best Picture and Best Writing Oscars in 1953. It had one heckuva all-star cast. Charleton Heston, Betty Hutton, James Stewart, Cornell Wilde and Dorothy Lamour.

That's enough about the stars. Here are some important players.

Gloria Grahame (1923 - 1981) played the part of Angel, who trained the elephants. Gloria was quite a star, but her career was cut short by cancer. Her first feature film was Blonde Fever (1944) starring Mary Astor and Phillip Dorn, and then she worked with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in Without Love (1945). She next plays Violet the vamp in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), her first film with James Stewart.

The next year, Grahame was in It Happened in Brooklyn with Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford and Kathryn Grayson, plus Jimmy Durante. Those were the days! 1947 was a great year for her. She was in Crossfire with the three Roberts...Young, Mitchum and Ryan. Then Song of the Thin Man with William Powell and Myrna Loy, and Merton of the Movies with Red Skelton.

In 1950 she got to co-star with Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place. Bogart apparently wanted Lauren Bacall in the role, but Grahame won out because Bacall couldn't get out of her contract. Here it gets a little strange. Gloria had been married to Lonely Place director, Nicolas Ray. She went on later to marry Ray's son (her step-son) Anthony Ray.

After her circus performance in 1952 she teamed up with Robert Mitchum again in Macao, and was then in Sudden Fear with Joan Crawford, and The Bad and the Beautiful with Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas, all in 1952. She won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Bad/Beautiful.

By this time, Grahame was in demand. She was almost the essence of Film Noir, and had the opportunity to work with all the A list stars. The best of these films could have been The Big Heat (1953) starring Glenn Ford. She was also in the musical Oklahoma! (1955) before embarking on the television cruise.

It seems that after working in television, Grahame's career faltered. Perhaps she was losing her beauty, I am not sure what happened. Her last films were not big hits, and not very good. Check out these titles, Blood and Lace (1971, The Loners (1972), Mama's Dirty Girls (1974) and Mansion of the Doomed (1976). Her last film was The Nesting (1981) and she died that year.

Back to the Greatest Circus Movie on Earth. Do you remember Henry Wilcoxon (1905 - 1984)? He was in  eight Cecil B. DeMille films. After a half dozen films, he got his big break as Mark Antony in Cleopatra (1934), starring Claudette Colbert. In addition to Greatest Show where he plays the FBI agent, he was in Sunset Blvd (1950) where he played himself as an actor, and The Ten Commandments (1956).

Wilcoxon had a 50 year career with 74 titles listed on IMDb. Other interesting films include A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (1968), F.I.S.T. (1978) and Caddyshack (1980). That's quite a variety.

How about Lawrence Tierney (1919 - 2002) who played Mr. Henderson? Another great Bit Actor. He played the title role in the 1945 film, Dillinger, and was a tough guy ever since. Look for him in Back to Bataan (1945), San Quentin (1946), Born to Kill (1947), and he played Jesse James in The Best of the Badmen (1951).

Tierney also guest starred on television for quite a while. He even made a few "Star Trek" appearances, though not in the original series. His later films include Prizzi's Honor (1985), Reservoir Dogs (1992) and at almost eighty years old, he was in Armageddon in 1998. He worked for close to 60 years.

Almost every other role in The Greatest Show on Earth was either for extras, or cameos for stars. Look for Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in the crowd. Emmett Kelley (1898 - 1979), the famous clown, played himself. William Boyd rode in as Hopalong Cassidy, and even John Ringling North was included. Alas, many of the Bit Parts were filled with great actors, but their roles were overshadowed by the story and the spectacle.

So get out to a circus near you. If you can't, at least watch The Greatest Show on Earth one more time. It may not have been the best DeMille film ever, but it is worth watching.

Herbert Anderson

I know, everyone remembers Herbert Anderson (1917 - 1994) as the father of "Dennis the Menace" on television from 1959 to 1963. But his career was much more than that.

Herbert's career in the movies started with The Fighting 69th (1940), and action film with a great cast including James Cagney and Pat O'Brien.  Anderson went on to work in many military films in the next two decades. Also in 1940 you can find him in Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet starring Edward G. Robinson, The Sea Hawk with Errol Flynn and No Time for Comedy with James Stewart.

Herbert was in three movies with Cagney. The Fighting 69th, The Strawberry Blond and The Bride Came C.O.D., all made at Warner Brothers. Of course, being on contract at W.B. also meant he had to take what they gave him, so we also see Anderson in lesser movies like Knockout, Highway West and The Body Disappears, all in 1941. I haven't seen those.

I recently caught Dive Bomber (1941) on TCM with Anderson and Fred MacMurray. This was the time for movies to show how great our armed forces were, just before we entered WWII. Some others are Navy Blue (1941) and This is the Army (1943). But Anderson seems to be cast as a reporter a lot. I counted six films were he played that part.

He has a good part in The Male Animal (1942) starring Henry Fonda. After a couple of Dan Dailey movies, You Were Meant for Me and Give My Regards to Broadway, both in 1948, we find Herbert trying out the small screen. He was cast in an episode of "Your Show Time" called "The Mummy's Foot" in 1949. It also starred Phyllis Coates, who would go on to play Lois Lane in "The Adventures of Superman."

The changeover from the 1940s to the 1950s was an interesting era. The war was over. People were moving to the suburbs. Television was new and no one knew how much it would change the entertainment industry. I certainly wouldn't want to watch a blockbuster film on the 10" black and white RCA TV I grew up with, but it was OK for "Howdy Doody" and "Crusader Rabbit."

At this turning point there were numerous movies being pumped out by the studios. Many were still filmed in black and white, and these were considered B movies, to be shown along with a full blown, big star, feature. You will find actors like Herbert Anderson in many of these...if you can find them at all. And they included every genre you can imagine.

You Were Meant For Me (1948) Musical with Jeanne Crain and Dan Dailey
The Set Up (1949) Sports/film noir with Robert Ryan
Battleground (1949) Action/war with Van Johnson and John Hodiak
The Yellow Cab Man (1950) Comedy with Red Skelton
The Magnificent Yankee (1950) Biography with Louis Calhern
The Prowler (1951) Film noir with Van Heflin
The Girl in White (1952) Biography with June Allyson

And of course, there were some top notch movies as well. Island in the Sky (1953), The Caine Mutiny (1954) and The Benny Goodman Story (1956) which were certainly not a B movies. The Caine Mutiny would be the second time Anderson worked with Fred MacMurray.

Herbert also worked on some teleplays back then, as he got his TV career moving. On "Ford Star Jubilee" in 1955 he was in "The Caine Mutiny Court Marshal" with Lloyd Nolan playing LCdr. Queeg.

He made a pair of movies in 1957 with Audie Murphy, Joe Butterfly and Night Passage. The later starred James Stewart. And to finish off that year on a high note, he appeared in My Man Godfrey.

From 1958 on, Herbert worked almost exclusively in television, with an occasional movie role. Look for him in everything from "The Real McCoys" to "The Millionaire." As mentioned above, "Dennis the Menace" was his most famous role, and that lasted from 1959 until 1963. His final TV appearance was in 1975 on "The Waltons."

Anderson's final three films spanned nine years. His last serious movie was Sunrise at Campobello (1960) starring Ralph Bellamy as Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1966 he is in Hold On! which is a movie about the rock group Herman's Hermits getting a spaceship named after them. (No, I didn't see it!) And finally he is in a Disney picture called Rascal (1969) about a raccoon that befriends Bill Mumy.

In that final decade of television he must have had some fun. Who wouldn't when you get to work on "Petticoat Junction," "The Man From Uncle," "Batman," "My Three Sons" (his final work with Fred MacMurray), "Bewitched," "Green Acres," "Ironside," and "The Rookies." (Among quite a bit more.)

Dwight Frye

October brings out the horror film buffs in droves. All the television channels focus on scary movies, and even theaters get into the mood. The local Movie Tavern near us is showing Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) this week, and TCM is screening Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) in a double feature. Its good to be alive.

So, who is the greatest Bit Actor of the horror genre? A good question, and of course, it is open to debate. I will put forward the name Dwight Frye (1899 - 1943), a veteran actor of over 60 titles. Let's take a look.

Frye's first screen appearance was in the Reginald Denny (1891 - 1967) comedy, The Night Bird (1928), which was his only silent film. In 1930 his first talkie was The Doorway to Hell starring Lew Ayres (1908 - 1996). Ayres went on to play Doctor James Kildare in the film series, with Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie. Also look for James Cagney in Doorway, which was Cagney's second film.

In 1931 Frye would take a role that set him up for a life in film that was forever typecast. As Renfield in Dracula (1931) he created a deranged characterization that he could not escape. In 1931 he was also in The Maltese Falcon starring Ricardo Cortez (1900 - 1977) and another famous horror film, Frankenstein, where he played Fritz, another deranged person. In The Maltese Falcon he was Wilmer Cook. Since Wilmer was a sadistic bad guy, he was in character there as well.

Frye is fascinated with bats again in The Vampire Bat (1933) starring Lionel Atwill (1885 - 1946) who is famous as Prof. Moriarty to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes. Also look for Fay Wray and Melvyn Douglas in that one.

There are a few detective stories in this era, but Dwight's next big horror flick is The Invisible Man (1933) starring Claude Rains (1889 - 1967). That was Rains' first sound film and it certainly helped him become a star. Frye works for a third time with director James Whale (1889 - 1957) in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), this time as Karl.

In The Crime of Doctor Crespi (1935) Frye plays a doctor. Probably not a mad one. The mad one is played by Erich von Stroheim (1885 - 1957). And the next year we see Dwight in a lighter film, Tough Guy, with Jackie Cooper and Rin-Tin-Tin Jr.

Things weren't going well for Frye at this point. He takes roles where he is uncredited as an extra, or parts where he played a makeup artist or "man on telephone." The stars he worked with included James Cagney, Slim Summerville, Andy Devine and others.

In The Shadow (1937) Frye is a hunchback once again, this time in the circus, and accused of murder. This one stars Rita Hayworth. He works with Hayworth again in Who Killed Gail Preston? (1938). One reviewer called it a 'murder-musical.' This time Hayworth is the victim.

Dwight Frye

IMDb has Frye unconfirmed as a villager in Son of Frankenstein (1939). Some one was probably watching it in HD and thought he recognized the hump. Or maybe he was eating flies. Who knows. If you see him, please let me know. That year we see Frye in his last work with James Whale, The Man in the Iron Mask.

I have written about an acquaintance of mine, Henry Brandon (1912 - 1990), in a previous post. Henry starred in a serial called The Drums of Fu Manchu (1940), and he worked with Dwight in episode 5.

There were a few war movies, as everyone was expected to make, and in 1941 he worked with Lew Ayres again in The People vs. Dr. Kildare. Nothing spectacular for a horror Bit Actor. So let's end this with the rest of his good stuff.

The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) starring Lon Chaney Jr., Cedric Hardwicke and Bela Lugosi.
Dead Men Walk (1943) with George Zucco, another Rathbone/Holmes foe.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943) again with Lugosi and Chaney Jr.
And in his finale, a change of pace comedy, Dangerous Blondes (1943), where he was uncredited.

Before he passed away Dwight was cast to play a substantial role in Wilson (1944), but he died of a heart attack before filming started. His role was taken by Reginald Sheffield (1901 - 1957).

In the career of one Bit Actor, I have given you a complete month of horror titles. Now go rent or buy some of them and start planning your Halloween party! And make sure you find Dwight Frye in as many of them as you can.

Pedro de Cordoba

I was watching the great, but sometimes under appreciated Alfred Hitchcock film, Saboteur (1942) last week. In the scene on the circus trailer, a tall, thin man appears. He had a deep voice, and I instantly knew he was John Carradine (1906 - 1988). Well, I was wrong. The part of Bones was played by Pedro de Cordoba (1881 - 1950). After finding my mistake, I thought that I owed it to Pedro to fill in my readers on his long career.

Pedro started working in silent films in 1915. He appears as Escamillo in the Cecil B. DeMille version of Carmen in that year. Since it was a silent film, it was based on the 1845 story by Prosper Merimee (1803 - 1870) rather than the opera by Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875).

After a ten year span of silent films, plus a few years doing something else, his first talkie feature was The Crusades (1935) directed by DeMille and starring Loretta Young (1913 - 2000). That same year he appears in Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn and Oliva de Havilland. Captain Blood has a wonderful cast of great Bit Actors, including Guy Kibbee and Donald Meek.

The decade of the 1930s is filled with great movies that are difficult to find these days. Pedro was in many of them, including The Devil Doll (1936) starring Lionel Barrymore and directed by Tod Browning (1880 - 1962) who also gave us Dracula (1931) and several of the Lon Chaney (1883 - 1930) silent films.

This was the decade of big stars like Fredric March, Claude Rains, Barbara Stanwyck, Don Ameche, Claudette Colbert, Dolores del Rio and Olivia de Havilland. Pedro worked with all of them. In another great, moody picture starring Boris Karloff, Pedro appears in Devil's Island (1939), and the same year in Juarez with Paul Muni and Bette Davis.

In 1940 we see Pedro in a lighter film, My Favorite Wife with Cary Grant and Irene Dunn, and then in his second film with Errol Flynn, The Sea Hawk. Flynn and de Cordoba would make three more films together in the 1940s. Also that year, he gets to buckle his swash again in The Mark of Zorro this time with Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone.

In 1941 we see Pedro in The Corsican Brothers. That's the one where Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays Siamese twins. And in 1943 he has a pair of great films, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Song of Bernadette but by this time, his career seems to be dropping off. He is found uncredited in many films after 1941.

He shows up in The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), Carnival in Costa Rica (1947) and my favorite title Omoo-Omoo the Shark God (1949). Omoo starred Ron Randall, Devera Burton and Trevor Bardette and garnered a rating of 2.9 on IMDb.

In the early days of television Pedro appears at least twice, on episodes of "The Lone Ranger." His last few films include some Macdonald Carey westerns, Comanche Territory and The Lawless, both released in 1950, and then Crisis (1950) starring Cary Grant and Jose Ferrer. His final film came in 1951, When the Redskins Rode where he plays Jon Hall's father.

Just to set the record straight, de Cordoba and Carradine did appear in seven films together, from 1935 to 1942. Saboteur was not one of them. Pedro de Cordoba was one of those Bit Actors who never made it big, but was clearly important in the films he made. He certainly was colorful enough. And now I will try harder to recognize him.