henry brandon


Brandon is more unrecognizable as Barnaby than in such movies as DRUMS OF FU MANCHU. I remember reading an interview with him in which he said appeared with Elisha Cook Jr in a dinner theater production of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE as Jonathan Brewster. Everybody immediately recognized Cook as the doctor but failed to recognize Brandon.
The commentary track on the ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 DVD pays tribute as the officer gunned down, saying he "knew how to die well."
Quite a career from Laurel and Hardy to John Wayne to Mel Brooks.

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[deleted]

Very possible considering his career ranges from BABES IN TOYLAND to TO BE OR NOT TO BE. I saw him recently in two very disparate films: THE SEARCHERS and THREE COMRADES as a one-eyed war veteran in a cafe where Margaret Sullivan, Robert Young and Franchot Tone meet.

Speaking of tone, a cousin of his Peter Franchot is a candidate in Maryland's elections next week. He came alone in the local Labor Day Parade introducing himself as "Franchot Tone's cousin". How many people remember him?

Another candidate was a black man named Craig Rice. Craig Rice wrote humorous murder mysteries featuring a hard drinking Irish lawyer named Malone and also ghosted mysteries by George Sanders and Gypsy Rose Lee. I wonder how many people remember Craig Rice any more. Her detective, by the way, was played by Pat O'Brien and James Whitmore.

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What's funny about Craig Rice is he is a black man, but I wasn't sure he ever heard of the author. Did you ever see Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone with Marjorie Main and James Whitmore? It was based on a short story by Rice and Stuart Palmer who paired their sleuths. I think the story was YOU BET YOUR LIFE with Hildegarde Withers matching wits with Groucho. Guess who comes off second best.

Maryland politics can be very strange. Remember Spiro Agnew? He was elected governor because the Democrats had nominated George Mahoney who ran for something in every election, and the Republicans thought Agnew was the lesser of the two evils. Two years later Nixon picked him for his running mate.

I once saw Agnew interviewed by Merv Griffith when he had published a novel because no publisher wanted his memoirs unless he told the truth. Griffith was the wrong person to interview Agnew.

A couple of years ago we had two Kennedys running: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend for governor and Mark Shriver for Congress. I think the magic of the Kennedy name is wearing off. They both lost.

And then you have my high school classmate Robin Ficker, but that's another story.

Back to Henry Brandon. VCI brought out two of his serials which had been out of circulation for years: JUNGLE JIM and SECRET AGENT X-9 with Brandon as the villain in both. DRUMS OF FU MANCHU served him much better.

I read an interview with him years ago where he talked of appearing with Elisha Cook Jr. in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE in Dallas. Brandon played Jonathan and Cook played Dr. Einstein. Brandon said everybody recognized Cook, but nobody recognized him because his roles often required a lot of makeup.

John Carpenter pays tribute to Brandon's long career in his commentary for ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 by saying Brandon knew how to die.

See you at the movies.

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[deleted]

Brandon did two movies with John Wayne: THE SEARCHERS and WAKE OF THE RED WITCH in each of which he is covered in makeup.

In the former he and Wayne are almost two of a kind when it comes to hatred, according to CELLULOID INDIANS, a book dealing with Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans.

The Native American author posits a theory that I had never heard before about Wayne's character: that his older niece was still alive after being kidnapped by Brandon(Scar) and raped. Wayne then murders the girl because he knows she could never be accepted back into the white community. Observe Wayne's body language when he comes back to Jeffrey Hunter and Harry Carey Jr.

Lana Wood, who played Debbie(Natalie) was at an antiques and collectibles show a few years ago, and I asked her about this theory. She very emphatically said Wayne had not killed her sister in the movie. That led me to wonder if I wasn't the first person to put that question to her.

DRUMS OF FU MANCHU remains one of my favorite serials with Brandon being one of the rare serial villains to escape at the end which was keeping with the
cliffhanger nature of the original novels. VCI has a special edition of the film with commentary.

IN THE NICK OF TIME, a serious book on sound serials, briefly discusses Brandon as a serial villain and considers him "well versed in the required histrionics of screen villainy."

See you at the movies.

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The Lancaster film is ULZANA'S RAID by Robert Aldrich who also made THE DIRTY DOZEN and WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? It's considered a metaphor the Vietnam as was SOLDIER BLUE. The latter transplants the My Lai massacre to the
American West with Candace Bergen as a white woman "rescued" from the Indians. During the climax, Bergen has more to fear from the soldiers. It was considered extremely violent for its time but pales by comparison with today's horror movies.

A friend of mine in the Navy Department Marty Gershen was a STAR AND STRIPES journalist who quit his college teaching job to Viet Nam to investigate My Lai because he didn't like the way the WASHINGTON POST and THE NY TIMES were reporting the story. DESTROY OR DIE: THE MY LAI MASSACRE tries to understand what happened from the soldiers' viewpoints, and the liberals tried to suppress the book. It's one of the most depressing books I've ever read.

Another friend of mine had some more success with books, but it's been many years since I've seen him. HUD, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, LONESOME DOVE and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. Larry McMurtry used to own a used and rare bookstore in DC when I knew him in the 70's.

If I seem to know more about movies than you want to know, part of the reason is I have Asberger's which is akin to autism. But that's another story which touches upon RAIN MAN and a friend of mine who was a character actor.

See you at the movies.

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In "The Searchers" Ethan Edward intends on killing his niece when he finds her, but by the end of the search he cannot do it. He brings her home.





"The sun is not kind. God should use a rose-amber spot."

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That is correct although I seem to recall cheating and looking at the end of the book where I thought Hunter killed Wayne. I could be wrong.

I was referring actually to the older niece and the author's theory that Wayne had killed her when he found she was still alive. The book is CELLULOID INDIANS, but I don't remember the author's name.

She cites Wayne's behavior when he rejoins Hunter and Carey, e.e. his angrily stabbing hit knife into the ground. It's obvious Wayne's very upset about what happened to his niece. Did he murder her?

When I put the question to Lana Wood, who had played the younger Debbie, she was very adamant: "John Wayne did not kill my sister." I wonder if she's been asked about this before.

I've never been to the Williamsburg Festival, mostly because my wife's not that interested in movies and it's a long drive. But we've had William Smith, Peter Mayhew and David Prowse, Linda Harrison and William Schallert among others here in Gaithersburg, Md. Conrad Brooks seems to be a regular.

What impressed me about David Prowse was in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE where he picks up Patrick Magee in his wheelchair and carries him across the room. My wife has CP and often has to use one.

See you at the movies.

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Silas Barnaby was known as "Mr.Barnaby" in the Rascals short, "Our Gang Follies of 1938." You can find this short on any Little Rascal DVD or on an old Blackhawk Productions video (which I own)

I immediately recognized Henry Brandon when Alfalfa visited the singing studio in the short. Barnaby was a young cosmopolitan guy, and in twenty years, he grew into an old Silas Barnaby- regenerated from Laurel and Hardy's "Babes In Toyland" (March of the Wooden Soldiers).

"March of the Wooden Soldiers" is on every Thanksgiving and Christmas time on WPIX, which is now CW11 in the NY Tri state area. Its been a morning tradition for thirty/forty years. If you're a Stooge, Marx Brothers, and L&H fan, this is one to watch while chompin' down on a nice Thanksgiving breakfast because its usually on 9am.

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The yule log was on channel 9 - WOR in Seacacus.

Sadly it is not broadcast anymore

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Chezarie--You will be happy to know WPIX in NYC, channel 11, still runs March of the Wooden Soldiers on Thanksgiving and broadcasts The Yule Log on Christmas morning from 9AM to Noon.

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Can you believe he was in his early 20's when he played Barnaby? Pretty good job.

"Don't feed the dog from the table from the plate on top of it!"

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Not only that, but he was actually younger than Felix Knight, who played Tom-Tom.

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