Johnny Mack Brown in a non-Western? Yes indeed, and he's excellent, too, in "Cross Streets"(1934), a sentimental melodrama about a Phi Beta Kappa medical student whose future goes down the tubes after his girlfriend jilts him for a rich BMOC. It's the night before graduation at Clifton University in June 1914. Prestigious alumni are on hand at the PBK frat hall. The undergrads are doing the hail-fellow well-met thing, and singing the school song in four part harmony. The dean is introducing some new recruits to the university, singing the praises of "Adam Blythe" (Johnny Mack Brown) who's also a star athlete at Clifton in addition to being the best surgeon the med school has ever produced. Then it all goes to hell. Adam takes his gal outside to propose to her. She's not sure she wants to marry him yet, because it can take years to set up a successful medical practice, but he keeps talking and has her almost convinced. Just then, his roommate approaches, drunk as a skunk. He's drowning his sorrows because the Dean has just flunked him out of school. He's not gonna graduate and is despondent. Adam doesn't want the poor guy to embarrass himself in front of the fraternity, especially with all the dignitaries on hand, so he helps him back to their dorm, where the roomy promises to stay put, and he does.
But what does Adam Blythe get for his good deed? While he was helping his roommate, the campus BMOC, whose dad is filthy rich, has come outside and chatted up his girlfriend, and had the nerve to propose to her himself! "I can give you all the things Blythe can't. I have money, he doesn't. And, I love you just as much as he does." Being shallow as a sidewalk rain puddle, the gal decides to go for the dough, and when Adam returns to the frat party, she's about to leave with the rich boy. "Sorry, Adam", she says. "It just didn't work out". He goes back to his dorm room and joins his roommate in a drink, then another, and another, to drown his sorrows. Fast forward two years, and he's an intern with a secret drinking problem. One night, he's called to perform an emergency operation, a gastroenterostomy; to steady himself, he throws down a few swallows from a bottle in his drawer, then heads to the operating theater, with medical students and professors watching. Holy smokes, the patient dies. Adam blames himself even though he did his best, and the patient was deathly ill to begin with. The next we see Adam, he's working in a pharmacy and his drinking problem has worsened. Good lord, he's sneaking slugs of pharmaceutical grade wood alcohol out of what looks like a gas can (I thought it was turpentine). The boss catches him and he's fired. Now he becomes a tramp, wandering the country with an old coat and full beard. Twenty years pass. It's now 1934, and he's on the street late at night looking for food. He stumbles and falls, and a man in a suit helps him up. Lo and behold, it's his old roommate from Clifton University, the guy who got drunk at the frat party because he flunked out. In the intervening two decades, he's become a self made millionaire. Now he wants to do Adam a favor, for helping him all those years ago. What the old roommate especially wants is to show up the Dean who flunked him out, and all the frat boys who dissed him when he was nobody, so he decides to make a pet project out of Adam Blythe.
He presents his idea: "Let's go back to Clifton and attend the graduation party. I can resurrect your career as a surgeon and show those guys up in the process". They invent a story about how Adam has been away in Europe for 20 years, and has established a successful clinic. The roomy tries to sell the Dean on making Adam the chief surgeon of the new Clifton Medical Center. "If you want me to make a donation, you'll do it!", he says. The roommate wants to lord it over the Clifton alumni, because they laughed at him when he flunked out, and now he's rich. But by putting Adam Blythe up to the ruse - even though Adam is sober now - he's putting him on the spot, and forcing him to tell lies about his past. He never had a European clinic; he's been an alcoholic hobo for the past twenty years.
Then - holy smokes! - who should be at the party but a beautiful young woman who looks exactly like his old girlfriend, the one who started him on the road to ruin in the first place. In fact, she's the daughter of that gal, who's also in attendance with her husband, the former BMOC. In a twist, the daughter ends up falling in love with Adam, who's subsequently accepted as the head surgeon of the new Clifton facility at his roommate's behest (otherwise he won't give a donation).
At the graduation ceremony, Adam can't take the pressure. He feels like a fraud, and he declines the position. Then he addresses the gathering and tells the story of his past, including his time as a vagabond veterinarian. "They called me 'The Animal Man'. I stayed in a small town and took care of the children's animals. It was the only work I could get, and I still drank anything I could get my hands on, including rubbing alcohol". He's ashamed, but he did operate on pets during this time, and saved their lives. The children loved him (and you'd better have a box of Kleenex for this scene), but in the end he had to leave town, because another doctor accused him of practicing medicine without a licence. He tells the graduates all of this to clear his conscience, and so his old girlfriend's daughter won't see him as a false hero, but it just makes her love him even more.
Then the old girlfriend gets jealous. Turnabout is fair play. She's not in love with her BMOC husband, she's really loved Adam the whole time. Now she regrets her impulsive choice twenty years ago, but it's too late. Her daughter is in love with Adam and wants to marry him. Mama threatens blackmail: "I'll say your her father"!, she tells Adam. Then the BMOC rushes in and is gonna shoot his wife, and that's all I can tell you. I've probably told you too much already, but I had to because this is an incredibly moving picture (see what I did there? "moving picture", hehe). No, but it is. It's incredibly moving, and Johnny Mack Brown knocks it out of the park in a prime role for a leading man.
In my opinion, he should've got an Oscar for his performance, or a nomination at the very least. "Cross Streets" gets our highest rating, Two Gigantic Thumbs Up. A tremendous movie on all counts, it's a must-see (and to think it was made by Poverty Row.) The picture is soft but watchable. ////
The previous night, we discovered another new Cowboy star, Tom Tyler. Boy is he great! He was an athlete, like Buster Crabbe and Johnny Mack Brown, and like those two he's very handsome. Tyler was a champion weightlifter who, like Crabbe, went to the 1928 Olympics, and once lifted 726 lbs! Great Googley Moogley that's some heavy stuff. In "Deadwood Pass"(1933), he plays "Tom Whitlock", a postal inspector who's posing as The Hawk, an escaped convict and stage robber who's hidden 200k in gubment bonds in The Pass (which looks like Beale's Cut in Newhall). As the movie opens, Whitlock - posing as The Hawk - rescues an runaway stage, because as a lawman (undercover or not) he can't let it crash with innocent civilians on board. He has to pretend to be The Hawk, though, and the pretty lady on board admires him, even if he is a criminal.
When he gets to town, he's introduced to "Mr. Mileaway" (classic Western movie name!), who controls access to Butch Cassidy, who's hiding out in The Pass with his henchmen. If Hawk (actually Whitlock) wants his 200k in hidden dough, he's gonna have to deal with Butch because Butch controls The Pass. Mileaway (Edmund Cobb) sets up a meeting with Hawk and Butch (Slim Whitaker), but Butch doesn't believe he's the real Hawk. Before this, Whitlock - as The Hawk - has staged a punchout and fake shooting of another postal inspector, his partner, who is now pretending to be badly wounded. This sets up Whitlock's credentials as The Real Hawk, a dangerous hombre. But Butch Cassidy still doesn't believe it's the real Hawk. He puts Whitlock through all sorts of tests until he finally agrees to trust him (sort of), mainly because Whitlock - as The Hawk - finally punches him out. Actually what happens is that Hawk beats Butch up in a punchout, after which Butch falls asleep. Hawk then steals his coat and hat and rides out to The Pass, impersonating Butch. It's dark out, and the lookouts think it's Butch, and Hawk finds the hidden loot. He takes the 200k back to his fellow postal inspector (and as an aside, it's important to remember - as we've mentioned before - that postal inspectors apparently have more clout than any other officer of the law, including FBI, CIA and IBCurly. I'm not kidding and you can look it up. Post office cops rule above them all, except maybe the library cop from Seinfeld). But anyhow, while Whitlock - as The Hawk - is recovering the stolen loot and returning it to the inspector, the real Hawk shows up. Butch was right all along! They set out to catch Whitlock, but before they can leave, "Felipe" (Merrill McCormick), an insurance investigator, who's been flirting with a dancer the entire movie, shows his colors and stops Butch and the gang before they can ride out to kill Tom Whitlock.
Man this is some great great stuff! Tom Tyler was a very early Western actor, even earlier than Johnny Mack Brown. He wears makeup in the style of a Silent film idol, which he was, and he has a Silent star's voice, too, high and lilting with a nasal, Midwestern accent. His voice, unlike Johnny Mack's, doesn't match his look, but he makes up for it with a tremendous onscreen presence. The picture was shot in Santa Clarita, and I'm wondering if some of the trails weren't in Towsley Canyon, where The Narrows are located. It sure looked like them (and Beales Cut). It's amazing to think this is an almost 90 year old movie, and if I'm not mistaken, Tom Tyler is listed on the plaque of Western Movie Stars at Garden of the Gods in the Santa Susana Pass. He doesn't have quite the smooth charm of JMB, but he's one hell of an action hero, and we'll certainly be looking for more of his movies.Two Big Thumbs Up for "Deadwood Pass". Slim Whitaker is also great as Butch Cassidy. He's very realistic looking as an outlaw - grimy, ugly and mean, just as you'd imagine one of those dudes would look, like an old time Hell's Angel with short hair. The movie is highly recommended and the picture is sharp, though a little damaged. Criterion, restore all these old Western films! ////
That's all for this evening. I wish you a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):) P.S. Try Factle. It's another Wordle-type game, trivia-based. I haven't got one right yet, because it's all stuff like "who has the most Instagram followers"? You have to guess the Top Five of whatever the category is. It's fun though. Give it a try! Factle.app
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