Films of the Golden Age
Issue Number 121
Summer 2025
“Most motion picture directors are a little screwy./ I know that fliers are, and I have been both, so draw your own conclusions.”
An arrogant, intimating but passionate “tough guy” director known for his physical/verbal clashes with studio execs, WILLIAM WELLMAN (1896-1976) was a delinquent who bettered himself as a WWI French Foreign Legion fighter pilot hero. Thanks to Douglas Fairbanks, he worked his way up from mail messenger to director of Buck Jones western silents. After his huge break directing the first “Best Picture” aviation classic WINGS (1927), he was primarily underused for typical dogfight dramas. Nominated three times, his only Oscar win was for co-writing A STAR IS BORN (1937). Other classics include PUBLIC ENEMY (1931), THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1943) and BATTLE GRO0UND (1949).
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All Film Articles
- WILLIAM WELLMAN: A Daughter’s Prospective
- FREDDIE BARTHOLOMEW: Boy Wonder
- RICHARD CROMWELL: Pre-Code Heartthrob
- MARTHA RAYE : Send in the Clown
- TAB HUNTER: Sigh Guy
- STEVE COCHRAN: Life on the Edge
- WILLIAM HOPPER: Out of the Shadows
- MICHAEL CALLAN: Dancing Teen Idol
- KITTY CARLISLE: Straight from the Hart
- LEE PATRICK: I Never Wanted to Be a Star
- WILLIAM FRAWLEY: Diamond in the Gruff
- GERALDINE PAGE: Eccentricities of a ‘Method’ Actress
- GIA SCALA: More Than a Beautiful Face
- ANN ROBINSON: Just a Girl from Hollywood
- JAMES DUNN: Irish Charmer
- NEVA PATTERSON: Liberated Lady
- CHRISTOPHER RIORDAN: An Unorthodox Career
- PIER ANGELI: Little Garbo
- KATHLEEN HUGHES: Bad, Blonde and Beautiful
- GIG YOUNG: Master Farceur
- RICHARD TYLER: Problem Child, Successful Adult
- ARON KINCAID: Tall, Blond and Beachworthy
- MERCEDES McCAMBRIDGE: No Mercy
- JOHN HARRON: Fame and Misfortune
- ROBERT HARRON: Fame and Misfortune
- GIGI PERREAU: The Major Little Minor
- BETTY FIELD: Bicoastal Actress
- PEGGY WEBBER: Marvelous Maven of Radio Theatre
- BUDDY EBSEN: To Dad with Love
- BILLY GRAY: Little Rascal
- BARBARA BATES: All About Barbara
- CARLETON CARPENTER: ALL-AMERICAN INNOCENCE
- PAUL DOUGLAS: Brute Appeal
- JOANNA BARNES: Belying the Big Chill
- CYNTHIA PEPPER: The “Camelot” Blonde
- WILLIAM TALMAN: Film Menace
- PETER LAWFORD: Swinging on a Star
- FRANCHOT TONE: The “Millionaire” Star
- ANITA LOUISE: Depression Era Dreamgirl
- SCOTT BRADY: The Fighting Irishman
- KAYE BALLARD: The Songs and the Laughs Are On Me
- RUTH ROMAN: All Woman
- HOPE HOLIDAY: Wild and Wilder
- TOMMY COOK: Radio’s ‘Golden Boy’
- JACKIE JOSEPH: Puttin’ on the Ditz
- INGER STEVENS: Wounded Butterfly
- ALICE PEARCE: Beauty Inside