The Musicals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Category: Marianne

  • Robert Edeson

    Robert Edeson (1868-1931) was an actor on Broadway and a vaudeville performer before making his film debut in 1914, starring in Cecil B DeMille’s The Call of the North. He had played his role in the original stage production.

    Edeson continued to play leading roles throughout the silent era, including as Colonel Zapt in Rex Ingram’s 1922 version of The Prisoner of Zenda. He also created the first screen version of lawyer Billy Flynn in Chicago (1927).

    Edeson acquired his most unusual assignment when actor Rudolph Christians died before Erich Von Stroheim had completed Foolish Wives (1922). Edeson took over as the character, but always acting with his back to the camera. 

    Robert Edeson’s only involvement in MGM musicals was as the General in Marianne.

  • Scott Kolk

    Walter Scott Kolk (1905-93) was a professional drummer before becoming an actor, and also sang in revues.

    Kolk made his film debut in Marianne, and the following year experienced the harsher side of the First World War when he played one of the volunteers in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). 

    Shortly before finally retiring from acting (he had taken several years out in the early thirties), Kolk portrayed the eponymous hero on the 12-part serial Secret Agent X-9 (1937), based on a comic strip co-written by Dashiell Hammett.

  • Basil Wrangell

    The exotically-named Basilio Petrovich von Wrangell (1906-77) was born in Italy, in the Russian embassy, and educated in England. After acting as an interpreter for director Fred Niblo during the production of Ben-Hur (1925), he travelled to the USA to train as an editor. A long and successful career in films and television followed, with an Oscar nomination in 1937 for The Good Earth.

    Wrangell edited Marianne (uncredited) and Love in the Rough. 

  • James C McKay

    James C McKay (1894-1971) worked as both director and editor during the silent era, starting in 1916 and for a variety of studios. His career seems to have tailed off during the 1930s.

    McKay edited two musicals for MGM: Marianne and They Learned About Women.

  • Oscar Apfel

    Oscar C Apfel (1878-1938) was a successful Broadway director before moving into film direction. He made well over 100 films, and supervised Cecil B DeMille during his early days in Hollywood. He also pursued a secondary career as an actor, and that was what he continued after the introduction of sound. 

    He became a busy supporting player, and his MGM musical parts included Major Russart in Marianne and Mr Mandelbaum in It’s a Great Life. Both were uncredited. 

  • Dick Winslow

    Not every child actor goes on to a career of well over sixty years as a successful character actor and band leader, but Richard Winslow Johnson (1915-91) managed it. Along the way he made appearances in five MGM musicals and may be the only actor to have worked with both Marion Davies and Roy Orbison.

    The films were Marianne (playing the accordion),Thousands Cheer,On an Island With You,Torch Song and The Fastest Guitar Alive.

  • Harry Tenbrook

    Norwegian-born Henry Olaf Hansen (1887-1960) made his first film appearance in 1911 and worked regularly for almost fifty years, most notably as a long-serving member of the John Ford Stock Company.

    Tenbrook was one of the many doughboys in Marianne and subsequently made appearances in Naughty Marietta, Let Freedom Ring, Easter Parade, The Belle of New York and Singin’ in the Rain.

  • George Magrill

    George Magrill (1900-52) was a bit-part player and occasional stunt performer whose work spanned cute cartoon animals and a range of henchmen, hooligans and thugs. When you accumulate around 500 films on your cv, it’s inevitable that some of them will be MGM musicals; in Magrill’s case, thirteen of them.

    Magrill began with Marianne in 1929 and ended with Three Little Words in 1950. In between came New Moon, The Merry Widow, The Bohemian Girl, San Francisco, Rosalie, The Great Waltz, New Moon (again), Meet the People, Music for Millions, Yolanda and the Thief and Good News.    

  • Sherry Hall

    Sherry Hall (1892-1984) appeared in more than 250 features, almost always without credit.

    His Metro musicals were Marianne, Hollywood Party, Student Tour, Here Comes the Band, San Francisco, Born to Dance, Hullabaloo, Words and Music, The Barkeleys of Broadway, Three Little Words and The Strip.

  • John Carroll

    The actor born Julian La Faye (1906-79) became a successful second-tier star, notably alongside John Wayne in Flying Tigers (1942). He started his film career playing bits in MGM musicals: Marianne (doughboy), Devil-May-Care (Bonapartist), The Rogue Song (Bandit) and New Moon Russian soldier).

    After developing his career, Carroll returned as straight man to the Marx Brothers in Go West, and went on to feature prominently in Lady Be Good, Rio Rita and Fiesta.

    Carroll’s last appearance was in Orson Welles’s film maudit The Other Side of the Wind (1975, released 2018).

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial
RSS
Facebook
X (Twitter)
WhatsApp
Copy link
URL has been copied successfully!