J. Farrell MacDonald Movie Quotes

J. Farrell MacDonald

June 6, 1875 - August 2, 1952

Connecticut born J. Farrell MacDonald had a career or three in show business. He began as a minstrel performer and by the teens was directing for L. Frank Baum's Oz Film Manufacturing Co. and making a name for himself as a reliable character actor.

Working until the last few years of his life, MacDonald's face can be spotted in hundreds of movies as a cop, a doorman, a doctor - always in support, but always more than a "bit". Outstanding roles include Mike Costigan, one of John Ford's 3 Bad Men who break your heart in 1926. He's adorable as the photographer in F.W. Murnau's Sunrise. The sympathetic Windy in 1936's Show Boat or the junk man in 1946's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn become memorable in MacDonald's hands. In 1935's Our Little Girl when runaway Shirley Temple encounters a hobo, we know it will be alright when "Mr. Tramp" is played by J. Farrell MacDonald. He worked, and he worked with the best.

Movie fans all have our favourite moments from our years of watching classic movies. Maybe they're not always the ones that make the AFI lists, but nonetheless, they touch us. Three of my favourite movie quotes all came out of the mouth of J. Farrell MacDonald.

MacDonald made 25 pictures with John Ford starting in the silent era. What times they must have had! Number 1 on my JFM countdown is from Ford's first post-war film, My Darling Clementine. In speaking with other western fans I know that I'm not the only one who anticipates the small exchange between Henry Fonda's Wyatt Earp and MacDonald's barkeep.

Henry Fonda (Wyatt Earp), J. Farrell MacDonald (Mac)

Wyatt: Mac, have you ever been in love?
Mac: No. I've been a bartender all me life.

In his real life, MacDonald was married to actress Edith Bostwick (1882-1943). The couple appeared together in silent films and were the parents of a daughter, Lorna.

Preston Sturges was a writer/director who knew a good character actor/actress when he saw one, and he used them well. He used J. Farrell MacDonald in 8 of his pictures from The Miracle of Morgan's Creek to The Sin of Harold Diddleback.

In The Palm Beach Story, MacDonald is cast in the familiar guise of a cop. One look at that mug and you can feel his aching feet. It's no wonder Joel McCrea's character refers to him as "Mulligan". The response "The name happens to be O'Donnell if it's all the same to you" speaks volumes. His admonishment to bickering couple McCrea and Claudette Colbert is #2 on my countdown.

"Why don't you two learn to get along together? I had to."

It's the time of year when all thoughts turn to Frank Capra's first post-war project, It's a Wonderful Life. The trio of directors represented here all had their "stock companies" and that use of character greats maybe one of the factors that give their films such lasting qualities. MacDonald has three Capra pictures to his credit, including "Sourpuss" in Meet John Doe.

In It's a Wonderful Life the newly not born George Bailey is seeking evidence of his existence. He goes looking for his car, which was last seen smashed into a tree. The substantial citizen of Pottersville who owns the tree is rightly suspicious of the overwrought stranger in his yard. Sizing up the situation and taking a whiff of Stewart's breath JFM sums up the situation with #3 on my list.

"You must mean two other trees."

Gems all! What other J. Farrell MacDonald gems are waiting for me in classic movieland? Were they gems on paper or did they become so in the hands of the right actor? What do you think?

Esther Howard

Elmira Sessions, Joel McCrea and Esther Howard in Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Miz Zeffie knows how to hold her man!

Greetings classic movie fans and welcome to this online celebration of one of the silver screen's character actress greats, Esther Howard. Born April 4, 1892 in Helena, Montana (the stamping ground of Myrna Loy and Gary Cooper), I have little more to relate on Esther's early years. It is for certain that by the age of 25 Esther had taken her comic timing, expressive eyes and soprano voice far from Montana to the Great White Way.

For a dozen years from 1917, she appeared in as many Broadway shows - comedies, musical revues and featured roles in hits such as Sunny (Jerome Kern) and The New Moon (Sigmund Romberg). During this time she married Arthur Albertson, a Georgia-born leading man in silent films (1914 - 1917) and stage performer who committed suicide upon the closing of a show in 1926.

Esther Howard and Skeets Gallagher in Merrily We Go To Hell (1932)

Esther left NYC for Hollywood in 1930 and hit the ground a-running. She has 28 movies to her credit before one of my earliest sighting in 1935's Stars Over Broadway where she plays an eager radio talent show contestant. Many of her roles are of the uncredited variety: tenement resident in Wyler's Dead End (1937), streetwalker in Van Dyke's Marie Antoinette (1938), lunch counter lady in Ulmer's Detour (1945) up to inmate in Cromwell's Caged (1950). Columbia used her talent for comedy in 17 films with Scotland's own Andy Clyde over a 20 year period beginning in 1935. Most of these shorts were directed by Jules "Three Stooges" White.

Every once in awhile Esther would hit the jackpot. A variety of good roles in really good films showcasing her extraordinary ability. She was part of Preston Sturges' famed stock company and appeared in seven of his pictures. Esther is unforgettable as Miz Zeffie, so admiring of Joel McCrea's torso in Sullivan's Travels (1941), Mrs. Weenie King in The Palm Beach Story (1942), Madame La Jolla in The Great McGinty (1940, and the mayor's wife in Hail the Conquering Hero, 1944. Perhaps no one else could have played those parts so well.

Esther Howard and Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Edward Dmytryk's Murder, My Sweet (1944) brought only one of the classic noir roles for which Esther Howard is remembered by noir junkies. Here's how Jessie Florian is described by Philip Marlow: "She was a charming middle aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud. I gave her a drink. She was a gal who'd take a drink, if she had to knock you down to get the bottle". Quite a build-up and Esther Howard doesn't let the audience down.

Gordon Douglas directed Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946) which gives Esther a delightful turn as another denizen of the underworld, Filfthy Flora. Another noir ripe for rediscovery by the public at large is Robert Wise's Born to Kill (1947). Esther's role as the loyal and resourceful Mrs. Kraft determined to bring a friend's killer to justice can only be described as sheer noir perfection. Her last role of major note was as the mother of Kirk Douglas and Arthur Kennedy in Mark Robson's Champion (1949) although she can be seen in movies throughout the 50s as a variety of landladies and bystanders with pithy comments.

Esther Howard passed away from a heart attack on March 8, 1965, at the age of 74. Any one of those roles, Jessie Florian or Mrs. Kraft was certainly worthy of a nomination for those awards the Hollywood folks are so keen on handing out and a nomination would have gone a long way to keeping the name of Esther Howard at the forefront of Tinsel Town's great character actors. As it is, the lady with the big eyes and bigger talent left a body of work that is a treasure for classic movie fans.