Warner Baxter, a forgotten star?
Mar 29, 2019 13:23:28 GMT
onethreetwo, mattgarth, and 6 more like this
Post by teleadm on Mar 29, 2019 13:23:28 GMT
Warner Baxter seems to be rather forgotten this days, he was a star in the silent era who managed to break the sound barrier with no problems, since his voice suited the audiences imaginations. He was also Hollywood's higest payed actor by 1936, and one of the early winners of an Oscar. But by the late 1930s his star had vaned, maybe because of changing tastes, but his career was also hampered by a nervous breakdown and a very painful arthritis that would in the end kill him.
"Most actors object to typing. I don't. In the first place, it is the public who types an actor, not the studio. If an actor is so good in a certain character, he can afford to submerge his urge to portray many parts in favor of a neat financial return. Yes sir, give me a character that the American public want to see me in and typing won't worry me".
He frequently played womanizing, charismatic Latin bandit types in westerns, and played The Cisco Kid or a similar character throughout the 1930s, but had a range of other roles throughout his career.
Many of his early sound movies were very pre-code, but once the code was enforced on the movie studios he moved over to comedies, dramas and adventure movies without scaring of his fans.
Little Warner Leroy Baxter was born in 1889 in Columbus, Ohio. Baxter was only 5 months old when his father died. His mother would eventually outlive him.
Baxter and his mother went to live with her brother in Columbus, Ohio. They later moved to New York City, where he became active in dramatics, both participating in school productions and attending plays.
In 1898, the two moved to San Francisco where he graduated from Polytechnic High School. He and his mother survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
In 1908, they returned to Columbus. After selling farm implements for a living, Baxter worked for four months as the partner of Dorothy Shoemaker in an act on the Keith Vaudeville Circuit.
Baxter began his film career as an extra in 1914 in a stock company. He acted on Broadway in the play Lombardi, Ltd. in 1917.
He had his first starring role on film in Sheltered Daughters 1921, and starred in 48 features during the 1920s.
Between 1914 and 1950 he made 108 movies.
First leading role in Sheltered Daughters 1921, though it was Justine Johnstone who was this film's big star.
The Awful Truth 1925, with Agnes Ayers. A print is preserved at UCLA Film and Television.
Aloma of the South Seas 1926, a movie that is considered lost. Gilda Gray played the exotic Aloma. It was a huge box-office success grossing $3 million in the U.S. alone, this was the most successful film of 1926 and the fourth most successful film of the 1920s.
The movie was remade in 1941 as a Dorothy Lamour vehicle.
As The Great Gatsby 1926, the first film adaptation of the 1925 novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The Great Gatsby is now considered lost, though a vintage movie trailer displaying short clips of the film still exists.
Craig's Wife 1927, with Irene Rich. Another of his movies now considered a lost film.
It was remade in 1936 and as Harriet Craig in 1950.
Ramona 1928, with Dolores del Rio.
For decades, Ramona was thought to be lost until archivists rediscovered it in the Národní Filmový Archiv in Prague in 2010. The Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress later transferred Ramona’s highly flammable original nitrate film to acetate safety stock.
The restored version of the 1928 film had its world premiere in the Billy Wilder Theater at the University of California, Los Angeles on March 29, 2014.
West of Zanzibar 1928, with scene stealer Lon Chaney.
In Old Arizona 1928, playing the Cisco Kid, a role he would return to in four other movies, The Arizone Kid 1930, The Stolen Jools (as a gag) 1931, The Cisco Kid 1931 and The Return of the Cisco Kid 1939.
It was the first major Western to use the new technology of sound and the first talkie to be filmed outdoors.
It contributed to creating the image of the singing cowboy, as its star, Warner Baxter, does some incidental singing.
Baxter went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, making him the first American to win it.
Behind That Curtain 1929.
It was the first Charlie Chan film to be made at Fox Studios, who is played by Korean-American actor E. L. Park, gets one mention early in the film, then makes a few momentary appearances after 75 minutes.
Producer William Fox chose this film to open the palatial Fox Theatre in San Francisco on June 28, 1929.
The Squaw Man 1931, with Lupe Velez, directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
Daddy Long Legs 1931, with Janet Gaynor.
Man About Town 1932, with Karen Morley
42nd Street 1933, with Ruby Keeler.
It's Baxters character who says "you're going out a youngster but you've got to come back a star!" voted as one of the 100 favorite lines from the movies.
Broadway Bill 1934, with Myrna Loy, directed by Frank Capra.
Baxter had a genuine fear of horses, yet made many movies involving horses.
Under the Pampas Moon 1935, with a young Rita Hayworth.
The Road to Glory 1936 publicity pic, with June Lang and Fredric March, directed by Howard Hawks.
The pic makes it look like it's a light movie, but it was a dramatic film depiction of World War I trench warfare in France.
The Prisoner of Shark Island 1936, directed by John Ford.
Loosely based on the life of Maryland physician Samuel Mudd, who treated the injured presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth and later spent time in prison after his controversial conviction for being one of Booth's accomplices.
As Robin Hood of El Dorado 1936, directed by William A. Wellman.
Very loosely based on real life Mexican folk hero Joaquin Murrieta.
The movie portrays Joaquin Murrietta as the Robin Hood of Old California in 1850, a kind, gentle man who was driven to violence. Wellman made it a hard-hitting story about racial prejudice and violence by both sides, Murrietta and his Mexican band and the white settlers.
Film historian Frank T. Thompson writes that "Wellman made a stronger statement on the subject of racism than a whole spate of later films (like Gentleman's Agreement)."
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Slave Ship 1937, with Elizabeth Allen, a seafaring adventure that also stared Wallace Beery.
Kidnapped 1938, with Freddie Bartholomew.
It made healthy profits at the box-office.
Barricade 1939, with Alice Faye.
20th Century Fox considered the film mediocre and it was shelved. A year later, with actress Alice Faye's popularity booming, the film was released to expected sub-par success.
Adam Had Four Sons 1941, with Ingrid Bergman and a young Susan Hayward.
Crime Doctor 1943.
Baxter played as a man who wakes up with amnesia, determined to remember his past.
Nine sequels followed, all starring Baxter. These later movies were somewhat more conventional mysteries than the original film. Baxter nearly finished his career with the series, which was relatively easy work for him having suffered a nervous breakdown and having severe arthritis. The last being The Crime Doctor's Diary 1949.
Lady in the Dark 1944, with Ginger Rogers. This was Baxter's last big-budget movie, having to compete with young "punks" like Ray Milland and Jon Hall for Ginger's affection.
State Penitentiary 1950, this was Baxter's last film performance.
The prison scenes in this film were photographed in the state penitentiary at Carson City, Nevada.
A year after completing his last movie, he did something that sounds insane by todays standards, having suffered from arthritis for several years, he underwent a lobotomy as a last resort to ease the chronic pain. It didn't help, and he left us shortly after in pneumania in May 1951, aged 62.
Thanks for watching!
All kinds of opinions are very, very, very welcome!
"Most actors object to typing. I don't. In the first place, it is the public who types an actor, not the studio. If an actor is so good in a certain character, he can afford to submerge his urge to portray many parts in favor of a neat financial return. Yes sir, give me a character that the American public want to see me in and typing won't worry me".
He frequently played womanizing, charismatic Latin bandit types in westerns, and played The Cisco Kid or a similar character throughout the 1930s, but had a range of other roles throughout his career.
Many of his early sound movies were very pre-code, but once the code was enforced on the movie studios he moved over to comedies, dramas and adventure movies without scaring of his fans.
Little Warner Leroy Baxter was born in 1889 in Columbus, Ohio. Baxter was only 5 months old when his father died. His mother would eventually outlive him.
Baxter and his mother went to live with her brother in Columbus, Ohio. They later moved to New York City, where he became active in dramatics, both participating in school productions and attending plays.
In 1898, the two moved to San Francisco where he graduated from Polytechnic High School. He and his mother survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
In 1908, they returned to Columbus. After selling farm implements for a living, Baxter worked for four months as the partner of Dorothy Shoemaker in an act on the Keith Vaudeville Circuit.
Baxter began his film career as an extra in 1914 in a stock company. He acted on Broadway in the play Lombardi, Ltd. in 1917.
He had his first starring role on film in Sheltered Daughters 1921, and starred in 48 features during the 1920s.
Between 1914 and 1950 he made 108 movies.
First leading role in Sheltered Daughters 1921, though it was Justine Johnstone who was this film's big star.
The Awful Truth 1925, with Agnes Ayers. A print is preserved at UCLA Film and Television.
Aloma of the South Seas 1926, a movie that is considered lost. Gilda Gray played the exotic Aloma. It was a huge box-office success grossing $3 million in the U.S. alone, this was the most successful film of 1926 and the fourth most successful film of the 1920s.
The movie was remade in 1941 as a Dorothy Lamour vehicle.
As The Great Gatsby 1926, the first film adaptation of the 1925 novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The Great Gatsby is now considered lost, though a vintage movie trailer displaying short clips of the film still exists.
Craig's Wife 1927, with Irene Rich. Another of his movies now considered a lost film.
It was remade in 1936 and as Harriet Craig in 1950.
Ramona 1928, with Dolores del Rio.
For decades, Ramona was thought to be lost until archivists rediscovered it in the Národní Filmový Archiv in Prague in 2010. The Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress later transferred Ramona’s highly flammable original nitrate film to acetate safety stock.
The restored version of the 1928 film had its world premiere in the Billy Wilder Theater at the University of California, Los Angeles on March 29, 2014.
West of Zanzibar 1928, with scene stealer Lon Chaney.
In Old Arizona 1928, playing the Cisco Kid, a role he would return to in four other movies, The Arizone Kid 1930, The Stolen Jools (as a gag) 1931, The Cisco Kid 1931 and The Return of the Cisco Kid 1939.
It was the first major Western to use the new technology of sound and the first talkie to be filmed outdoors.
It contributed to creating the image of the singing cowboy, as its star, Warner Baxter, does some incidental singing.
Baxter went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, making him the first American to win it.
Behind That Curtain 1929.
It was the first Charlie Chan film to be made at Fox Studios, who is played by Korean-American actor E. L. Park, gets one mention early in the film, then makes a few momentary appearances after 75 minutes.
Producer William Fox chose this film to open the palatial Fox Theatre in San Francisco on June 28, 1929.
The Squaw Man 1931, with Lupe Velez, directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
Daddy Long Legs 1931, with Janet Gaynor.
Man About Town 1932, with Karen Morley
42nd Street 1933, with Ruby Keeler.
It's Baxters character who says "you're going out a youngster but you've got to come back a star!" voted as one of the 100 favorite lines from the movies.
Broadway Bill 1934, with Myrna Loy, directed by Frank Capra.
Baxter had a genuine fear of horses, yet made many movies involving horses.
Under the Pampas Moon 1935, with a young Rita Hayworth.
The Road to Glory 1936 publicity pic, with June Lang and Fredric March, directed by Howard Hawks.
The pic makes it look like it's a light movie, but it was a dramatic film depiction of World War I trench warfare in France.
The Prisoner of Shark Island 1936, directed by John Ford.
Loosely based on the life of Maryland physician Samuel Mudd, who treated the injured presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth and later spent time in prison after his controversial conviction for being one of Booth's accomplices.
As Robin Hood of El Dorado 1936, directed by William A. Wellman.
Very loosely based on real life Mexican folk hero Joaquin Murrieta.
The movie portrays Joaquin Murrietta as the Robin Hood of Old California in 1850, a kind, gentle man who was driven to violence. Wellman made it a hard-hitting story about racial prejudice and violence by both sides, Murrietta and his Mexican band and the white settlers.
Film historian Frank T. Thompson writes that "Wellman made a stronger statement on the subject of racism than a whole spate of later films (like Gentleman's Agreement)."
Slave Ship 1937, with Elizabeth Allen, a seafaring adventure that also stared Wallace Beery.
Kidnapped 1938, with Freddie Bartholomew.
It made healthy profits at the box-office.
Barricade 1939, with Alice Faye.
20th Century Fox considered the film mediocre and it was shelved. A year later, with actress Alice Faye's popularity booming, the film was released to expected sub-par success.
Adam Had Four Sons 1941, with Ingrid Bergman and a young Susan Hayward.
Crime Doctor 1943.
Baxter played as a man who wakes up with amnesia, determined to remember his past.
Nine sequels followed, all starring Baxter. These later movies were somewhat more conventional mysteries than the original film. Baxter nearly finished his career with the series, which was relatively easy work for him having suffered a nervous breakdown and having severe arthritis. The last being The Crime Doctor's Diary 1949.
Lady in the Dark 1944, with Ginger Rogers. This was Baxter's last big-budget movie, having to compete with young "punks" like Ray Milland and Jon Hall for Ginger's affection.
State Penitentiary 1950, this was Baxter's last film performance.
The prison scenes in this film were photographed in the state penitentiary at Carson City, Nevada.
A year after completing his last movie, he did something that sounds insane by todays standards, having suffered from arthritis for several years, he underwent a lobotomy as a last resort to ease the chronic pain. It didn't help, and he left us shortly after in pneumania in May 1951, aged 62.
Thanks for watching!
All kinds of opinions are very, very, very welcome!
