Johnny Mack Brown's "Complete Surrender" to Clark Gable & Joan Crawford

Dothan native Johnny Mack Brown first gained fame as a football player at the University of Alabama. His talent in the sport in high school earned him a scholarship to play in Tuscaloosa, where he excelled as halfback on the 1924 and 1925 teams coached by Wallace Wade. In the 1926 Rose Bowl Brown scored two of Alabama's three touchdowns as the team defeated the heavily favored Washington Huskies. He was named the game's most valuable player and later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and the initial class of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

His success on the football field led to his portrayal on Wheaties cereal boxes and an offer of a Hollywood screen test. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signed him to a five-year contract; his film and television career lasted until 1966.

Brown played mostly minor roles in the early years. A big break came in 1928 and only his fourth film, the silent Our Dancing Daughters. He appeared opposite Joan Crawford, already a star by that time. In 1929 he appeared in Coquette, the first talkie for mega-star Mary Pickford. She won a best actress Oscar for the role. In the following year he played the title role in Billy the Kid.  Another 1930 western Montana Moon found him teamed again with Crawford.  

Based on these and several other high-profile, successful films Brown seemed poised for major stardom. A third film with Crawford proved to be his undoing as the leading man MGM wanted him to be. Bob Thomas, in his 1978 biography of Crawford, had this to say about that film: 

"Crawford had meanwhile starred in Complete Surrender as a cabaret dancer who is saved from suicide by a Salvation Army man, Johnny Mack Brown. After a preview audience failed to respond, Mayer ordered a complete remake with Gable in the Salvation Army role. Retitled Laughing Sinners, the movie proved a success." [p. 80]

At about this same time Brown tested for the role of Tarzan, but didn't get the part. Johnny Weissmuller did, and went on to great fame in the role. Brown left MGM and began making westerns exclusively for Universal and then Monogram. Most of these were low budget B-moves, but they made him famous. He retired in 1952, but returned to make a few more films and television shows before 1966. In all he made some 160 movies in his career.

Brown died on November 14, 1974, and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park  in Glendale, California. For some years in the 2007-2011 period Dothan hosted the Johnny Mack Brown Western Festival to honor its native son. 

Johnny Mack Brown in his Alabama football days

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

Johnny Mack Brown in 1935

Source: Wikipedia

 Brown first appeared with Joan Crawford in the 1928 silent film Our Dancing Daughters. Also starring in the film is Birmingham native Dorothy Sebastian. You can read more about her on this blog post.

Source: Wikipedia

This 1930 film was one of Brown's earliest westerns and also starred Crawford and Sebastian.

Source: Wikipedia

Johnny Mack Brown performing in one of his many westerns. 

Source: Alabama Mosaic

From March 1950 until February 1959 Dell Comics published a title devoted to Johnny Mack Brown as western star.  

Movies with Alabama Connections: Our Dancing Daughters

I've written before on this blog about two Alabama natives who went Hollywood, Dorothy Sebastian and Johnny Mack Brown. In this post I'm going to examine a 1928 silent film they made together, Our Dancing Daughters, a portrait of youth during the roaring, immoral twenties. The film also starred Joan Crawford, Anita Page and Nils Asther and was a financial success. Crawford's first film had been released in 1925; this one made her a star. 

The story unfolds among the parties, romances, and leisure activities of a group of young people moving in wealthy circles. Diana [Crawford] and Ann [Page] are best friends who meet the wealthy Ben [Brown] at one of their apparently frequent parties at the yacht club. Diana and Ben are immediately attracted to each other, but Ann soon makes her move. Diana has a "wild girl" reputation that sours Ben on her, and he marries the supposedly virginal Ann. We also watch the relationship between a third friend Beatrice [Sebastian] and another wealthy beau, Norman [Nils Asther]. Let's just say complications ensue. You can read Wikipedia's more detailed plot description here.

I enjoyed this film, which is only 86 minutes long. Watching Alabama natives acting in early Hollywood is always fun, and the story moves along at a rapid pace. I've seen enough silent films over the years that I'm comfortable watching them. 

Brown married Cornelia Foster in 1926, and they remained married until his death in 1974. They had four children. For more on him, see Beidler, Phillip D. "The Story of Johnny Mack Brown." Alabama Heritage 38 (Fall 1995): 14-25

Sebastian, on the other hand, cut a different path through Hollywood. She was married three times; the first husband was her high school sweetheart; that marriage ended in 1924. Husband number two was William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd; they married in 1930 and divorced six years later. The third marriage lasted until her death in 1957. She was briefly engaged to Clarence Brown, who just happened to operate a car dealership in Birmingham before his long career as a film director began. Sebastian also had an affair with Buster Keaton in the 1920's while he was married to Norma Talmadge. The affair may have resumed after she and Boyd were divorced. Sebastian was arrested for drunk driving in 1938 after a dinner at Keaton's also attended by her nephew.

See more comments below many of the stills. Reviews, commentary and more images related to the film can be found here. Brown and Sebastian both have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

MGM tried to turn Brown into a leading man and went with the "John Mack Brown" name for a while. He made top of the line films with Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford and Jean Harlow for a few years, but then was replaced by some rising young star named Clark Cable. Brown, who had already made a few westerns, moved into that genre completely and had a career that lasted into the 1960's. He made over 160 films before he retired from the screen. Brown tested for the role of Tarzan in the 1932 film, but the director thought he was too short. 

In the opening scenes we see inside the house where Diana lives with her parents. Here they are talking in mum's bedroom before Diana heads out to yet another Yacht Club party. The Art Deco sets in this film are to die for....

At a massive party at the Yacht Club Diana cuts a rug or three. 

Meanwhile, Beatrice & Norman are outside in his car yakking. Norman wants to get married, Beatrice is resisting. This scene is the first time we see Sebastian in the film. Sebastian appeared in about sixty movies between 1925 and 1948, although most of those in the last decade or so used her in small roles. 

We have to wait a bit to find out why Sebastian is so reluctant. 

Ben lights up when he first sees Diana on the dance floor. 

Brown, of course, really did play halfback at Alabama and his performance in the 1925 Rose Bowl helped the team win a national championship. Brown's image on Wheaties cereal boxes soon followed, and he was invited to do a screen test in Hollywood in 1927. Brown was from Dothan, though, not Birmingham. 

Diana responds immediately when she sees Ben and learns his status.

There's lots of clever dialog in this film. 

Ben's initial interest in Diana is quickly overcome by Ann, the supposed "good girl" of the pair. Ben has no interest in the soiled dove Diana, who has a "party girl" reputation, so he ends up marrying Ann.

Oh, now we're back to Beatrice and Norman and their discussion in the car. 

Beatrice finally confesses--she had sex with other men before she met Norman!

Norman goes on to ask, "Were--they--of our crowd?" Beatrice is reluctant to answer, and then he declares he doesn't want to know. Then the kissing begins.

After a day of horseback riding with the gang, Diana and Beatrice have some fun with boots. 

At yet another Yacht Club party--ho, hum--the two Alabama natives have a chance to get together for a little talking. I wonder what interesting conversations they had on the set during filming. 

After Bea & Norman are married, Diana goes to visit. Some of Bea's exes tag along.

"Here's to the husbands--of the girls we love."

After breaking a glass, Norman offers a toast of his own: "Here's to the lovers--of the girls we marry." Bea is embarrassed, Diana embarrassed for her, and the exes make a quick retreat.

"Norman--you must forget--trust me!" They kiss and make up, but Norman declares, "I love you--then I hate you--then I love you again--" 

Diana comforts Bea by telling her that Norman will be back. Bea says "Yes--and all through our lives together--he'll be coming back--then leaving me again." Then she tells Diana to thank God she hasn't done "anything that can come back afterward and punish you." 

In much of the rest of the film we follow the marriage of Ben and Ann as it spirals downward. "Good girl" Ann is a lush and cheats on Ben continuously. In the end, however, Ben becomes free to marry his true love--the real good girl Diana. 

The four photographs below are publicity stills for the film. 

Sebastian and Asther made the cover of True Romances for November 1932. I'm not sure what it appeared four years after the movie. 

Source: Nils Asther fan blog

Sebastian and Asther in a photo by Ruth Harriet Louise, portrait photographer at MGM. Look familiar?

Source: Nils Asther fan blog

Sebastian made the cover of the Alabama Alumni Magazine spring 2008 for Catherine Gwaltney's article "So You Want to Be In Pictures" which examined Sebastian and Johnny Mack Brown's lives and careers in Hollywood. Sebastian briefly attended the University of Alabama before marrying Allen Stafford in Nobvember 1920.

Johnny Mack Brown as Billy the Kid

I recently picked up and flipped through my copy of William K. Everson's classic A Pictorial History of the Western Film, as one does when escaping the heat of an Alabama summer day. What did I find but a couple of stills and some discussion of Johnny Mack Brown's role as William Bonney in the 1930 film Billy the Kid. Let's investigate.

I've already written about the Dothan native, University of Alabama football star and actor in several pieces on this blog. Early in his career MGM tried to turn him into a romantic lead, such as the 1928 silent film Our Dancing Daughters in which he starred with Joan Crawford and fellow Alabama native Dorothy Sebastian. That same year major star Norma Shearer and Brown appeared in A Lady of Chance. I've devoted five posts to that film, since much of it is set in Alabama. 

In 1930 he was teamed with Crawford again in Montana Moon, which also co-starred Dorothy Sebastian. A third pairing with Crawford did not work out. Audiences failed to respond to early showings and MGM ordered the film Complete Surrender reshot with Clark Gable opposite Crawford. 

Brown soon left MGM and moved into westerns. I've posted about one of those, the 1945 "Flame of the West" in which he plays a new physician in town. Now it's time to look at another. 

Billy the Kid was one of four films Brown made in 1930 and was directed by King Vidor [1894-1982], whose career in the movies began in 1913 and lasted until 1980. The film also stars Wallace Beery as Pat Garrett, the lawman who tracked down and shot Billy on July 14, 1881. The outlaw had been sentenced to hang, escaped and killed two deputies in the process. As it happens, Garrett was born in Chambers County, so there's a second Alabama connection in this film.  

Today Henry McCarty aka William Bonney aka Billy the Kid is an iconic character with many appearances in popular culture, ranging from films and television episodes to comics and video games. But in 1930 he was just beginning his rise in the pantheon of western outlaws.

A folk song "Billy the Kid" appeared at some point in the west; the Sons of the Pioneers recorded it in 1937. A play "Billy the Kid" ran on Broadway in 1906. Two silent films about Billy were released in 1911; both starred women impersonating the male outlaw. Brown & Vidor's 1930 film was the first sound movie devoted to the Kid, and the first in which a male starred in the role!

This film was one of two released in 1930 that a used 70mm widescreen process; the other was The Big Trail starring John Wayne. Unfortunately, the Great Depression prevented cinemas from upgrading to widescreen and only a few such  movies were made at the time. The process would lie dormant until The Robe filmed in Cinemascope and released in 1953. Wayne's widescreen version has been restored, but the only known version of Brown's film is standard-width. 

Billy the Kid runs 95 minutes and was release on October 18, 1930. The film was shot on various locations such as Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, San Fernando Valley, and Gallup, New Mexico. As the IMDB notes, the great silent film star of Westerns William S. Hart was an uncredited technical advisor. He owned some of Billy the Kid's "six shooters" and was friends with such legends of the West as Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. 

Images two through six below are taken from Everson's book and offer some interesting details about the film. Hart is shown in the first photo offering one of Billy's guns to Brown. The second photo is a scene with a confrontation between Garrett and Billy. In the the text shown from the book, Everson discusses the dominance of long shots and lack of closeups and the effect of that in the standard-width version. The film is available from Warner Archive; a preview can be seen on YouTube. 

By the mid-1930s Brown began a long series of western films for several studios, including Republic, Universal and Monogram. In the 1950s his likeness appeared in a series of comic books published by Dell. He is an inductee of the College Football Hall of Fame [1957] and the first class of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame [1969]. He died November 14, 1974. Brown was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers in 2008. 

Source: YouTube 

Source: Grand Comics Database

Johnny Mack Brown & "A Lady of Chance" (1)

After his football playing days at the University of Alabama ended, Dothan native Johnny Mack Brown signed a contract with MGM and took up residence in Hollywood. His spectacular performance in the team's win at the 1926 Rose Bowl against the University of Washington--which was heavily favored--created a media sensation. Brown even made the front of the Wheaties cereal box. Producer and director King Vidor took notice; Brown went to California again in 1927 and had a long career in the movies. His first film appearance came that year in Slide, Kelly, Slide--a baseball movie. 

Brown became best known as one of the kings of the B westerns; he starred in dozens--and dozens. Yet in the early part of his career--mostly the silent movie part--the studio attempted to make him a leading man to play alongside some of Hollywood's female stars including Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford [several times] and Norma Shearer. He even acted with fellow Alabama native Dorothy Sebastian--along with Crawford--in Our Dancing Daughters also released in 1928. In the following year he starred opposite Mary Pickford in her first talkie Coquette--for which she won an Academy Award. He was sometimes billed as John Mack Brown in those days.

In 1928 Brown appeared in eight films. I recently watched one of those efforts, A Lady of Chance, released on December 1 of that year. Brown is the romantic lead opposite Norma Shearer, at the time one of the biggest stars of either sex in Hollywood. She also happened to have married the previous year Irving Thalberg, who at the age of 26 in 1925 became head of production at the newly formed MGM studio. I wonder if the former football player from Alabama was a bit nervous his first day on the set?

I'm going to do something a bit different with this topic, five different posts containing about twenty screen shots each from the movie. That will take us through the entire 78 minute film. Why am I doing this? Well, this movie not only stars an Alabama native early in his career, but a significant portion of the film is set in the state as well. So there's that. Hmm, I wonder where that idea came from?

Comments are below many of the photos. I'll have some final thoughts on the film at the end of the last post. 

This production was Norma Shearer's last silent film. She continue acting until 1942; her final film was Her Cardboard Lover. Shearer was the first actor to be nominated five times for an Academy Award; she won in 1930 for The Divorcee. Her brother Douglas G. Shearer was a pioneer of sound design in motion pictures; he won seven Academy Awards during his long career. The two were the first siblings to win that award.

The film was written by A.P. Younger and Edmund Goulding. Younger wrote for some 60 films between 1919 and his suicide in 1931. Goulding had a long career as screenwriter, director, songwriter and producer; he directed the classic film noir Nightmare Alley in 1947. He died in 1959.

Robert Z. Leonard was an actor director and producer whose career lasted from 1913 until 1957. He died in 1968.

The film was edited by Margaret Booth, whose Hollywood career spanned nine decades. 

As of this writing, you can view A Lady of Chance on YouTube.

Three supporting actors in this film were all veterans. Lowell Sherman who played Brad, had success as both an actor and director. He directed May West and Katherine Hepburn in two successful films before his untimely death at age 46 in 1934. Gwen Lee, who played Gwen, had mostly supporting roles in some 60 films. Eugenie Besserer often played mother roles as she did here; she acted that part for Al Jolson's character in The Jazz Singer.  

The early part of the film introduces us to Dolly Morgan, known as "Angel Face".  She is a parolee still using her looks to entrap wealthy men into situations where she can relieve them of some of that wealth. Two other con artists, Gwen and Brad, recognize her and persuade her to join them in their next job. The pair attempt to bilk Morgan out of her share after their success, but she manages to steal the entire $10,000 and disappear.

Here's what the New York City police had on "Angel Face"

Dolly next turns up in Atlantic City where she happens to meet Steve Crandall, a businessman from Alabama, at a convention. 

Steve is working on a telegram but is interrupted before he pays for it.

Dolly reads the telegram to Crandall's mother, which mentions the coming deal that will be worth a million dollars. Naturally, Dolly's interest in Steve is immediate. 

Dolly pays for the telegram, and thus the cynical and crooked city woman and the innocent from Alabama can "meet cute."

And does Steve ever fall hard for that "angel face". 

You can just see the wheels turning in Dolly's head as she realizes she has this sap in the palm of her hand and plots her way to Steve's coming riches. 

The black man pushing their cart through the park one evening has been entertaining them with song, so here we have the first "ahem" moment of this more than eighty-year-old film. This actor looks familiar, but he is unlisted in the film's entry on IMDB.

TO BE CONTINUED