J. Farrell MacDonald
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Farrell MacDonald (June 6, 1875 – August 2, 1952) was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. He appeared in over 325 films over a 41-year career from 1911 to 1951, and directed... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
Superman and the Mole-Men
Reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane arrive in the small town of Silsby to witness the drilling of the world's deepest oil well. The drill, however, has penetrated the underground home of a race of small, furry people who then come to the surface at night to look around.
Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell
Posing as a man over 70, a lecturer (Clifton Webb) enters an old-folks home to prove age is a state of mind.
Here Comes the Groom
Foreign correspondent Pete Garvey has 5 days to win back his former fiancée, or he'll lose the orphans he adopted.
Woman on the Run
A woman tries to track down her missing husband through the dark streets of San Francisco.
When Willie Comes Marching Home
When Willie leaves home to join the war effort he is all ready to become a hero, but he is only frustrated when his posting ends up to be in his home town, and he is recruited into training, keeping him from the action. However, when he finds himself accidently behind enemy lines he unexpectedly becomes a hero after all.
The Daltons' Women
The Dalton gang has moved west taking new identities and Marshals Lash and Fuzzy are after them. They receive help from Pinkerton agent Joan Talbot as they try to sort out who the bad guys really are.
Whispering Smith
Legendary railroad detective Whispering Smith becomes convinced that old friend and colleague Murray Sinclair has joined a criminal band to loot the railroad.
Sitting Pretty
Tacey and Harry King are a suburban couple with three sons and a serious need of a babysitter. Tacey puts an ad in the paper for a live-in babysitter, and the ad is answered by Lynn Belvedere. But when she arrives, she turns out to be a man.
Shep Comes Home
Little Larry Havens, whose father died in WWII, runs away from home to keep from being separated from "Shep," his father's dog. In Arizona, he is befriended by a kindly Mexican, Manuel Ortiz, who he is able to repay in time, with the aid of Sheriff "Cap" Weatherby, when Ortiz is suspected of crimes committed by local gangsters.
Panhandle
John Sands, a former Texas marshal turns to ranching, and later to a gunfighter when he sets out to prove that casino/saloon owner, Matt Garson, had his brother, a newspaperman, killed.
Fury at Furnace Creek
The Arizona wilderness, 1880. Gen. Fletcher Blackwell sends a message telling Capt. Walsh, who is escorting a wagon-train through Apache territory, heading for the fort at Furnace Creek, that he should cancel the escort and rush to another town.
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
Twenty-three years after scoring the winning touchdown for his college football team mild-mannered Harold Diddlebock, who has been stuck in a dull, dead-end book-keeping job for years, is let go by his pompous boss, advertising tycoon J.E. Wagglebury, with nothing but a tiny pension.
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
Teenager Susan Turner, with a severe crush on playboy artist Richard Nugent, sneaks into his apartment to model for him and is found there by her sister Judge Margaret Turner. Threatened with jail, Nugent agrees to date Susan until the crush abates.
My Darling Clementine
"My Darling Clementine" is John Ford's retelling of the famous shoot out at the OK Corral that arose from the the Earp Clanton feud.
Joe Palooka, Champ
Manager Knobby Walsh discovers young hunk Joe Palooka and trains him to fight the champ. Mobsters try to make life tough for Joe and his socialite girlfriend Anne. Cameos by several boxing stars.
It's a Wonderful Life
An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would had been like if he never existed.
Johnny Angel
George Raft plays a sailor who sets out to solve his father's mysterious death.
Hangover Square
A composer who can't control his creative temperament turns to murder.
Fallen Angel
An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills.
Circumstantial Evidence
A man waits on death row while his son and friend try to prove that he did not kill a grocer with an ax.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism.
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
A small-town girl with a soft spot for American soldiers wakes up the morning after a wild farewell party for the troops to find that she married someone she can't remember.
Texas Masquerade
A young Eastern lawyer, seriously injured in a stage holdup, secures the help of Hoppy, California and Jimmy in completing his mission to his woman cousin's ranch in Texas.
Tiger Fangs
A big-game hunter travels to Malaya to help stop the Nazis and Japanese from destroying the rubber industry.
The Palm Beach Story
A New York inventor, Tom Jeffers, needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife, Gerry, decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire, J. D. Hackensacker III.
The Living Ghost
A detective investigating kidnapping case discovers the victim, who may be a zombie.
Reap the Wild Wind
Florida ship salvager Loxi falls for Jack, captain of a ship wrecked on the Key West shore. However, their romance is complicated by the arrival of another suitor.
Private Snuffy Smith
Snuffy Smith, moonshining hillbilly, grows tired of dodging revenue agents, headed by Cooper, and decides to take the army up on their offer of free clothes, food and $21.00 a month. Once enlisted, he finds that revenue agent Cooper is his sergeant.
Phantom Killer
Well-known philanthropist and deaf-mute John G. Harrison is identified leaving the scene of several murders but evades successful prosecution as there are hundreds of witnesses who have also seen him emceeing benefits at the exact same time as the murders.
Bowery at midnight
Soup kitchen operator and criminologist Bela Lugosi operates a soup kitchen as a front for a criminal gang who commit a series of robberies and murders.
The Great Lie
Sandra and Pete elope but their marriage is invalid since she's not yet divorced. Sandra is, however, pregnant by Pete. Pete marries his former fiancée Maggie, then flies to South America where his plane crashes. Maggie pays Sandra to let her adopt Pete's baby. Pete returns "from the dead". Sandra and Maggie contend for Pete and the baby.
Riders of the Timberline
Hopalong Cassidy and Johnny Nelson ride to the mountains to help a man and his daughter save their logging business from someone who is sabotaging their efforts.
Meet John Doe
A penniless drifter is recruited by an ambitious columnist to impersonate a non-existent person who said he'd be committing suicide as a protest, and a social movement begins.
The Last Alarm
A recently retired fire captain suffers from boredom, until one of his friends is killed battling an arson fire. It becomes his purpose in life to track down the arsonist. As he gets closer to finding the killer, things become dangerous for him and his family.
Stagecoach War
Hoppy is busy chasing stagecoach bandits who sing as they rob.
Zenobia
A visiting circus man calls on a Southern country doctor to cure his sick elephant; afterwards, the grateful beast becomes so attached to the doctor that it starts to follow him everywhere.
Gang Bullets
A ruthless but clever gangster who knows every loophole in the law has the tables turned by a dedicated District Attorney and his assistant.
Topper
Madcap couple George and Marion Kerby are killed in an automobile accident. They return as ghosts to try and liven up the regimented lifestyle of their friend, bank president Cosmo Topper. When Topper starts to live it up, it strains relations with his stuffy wife.
Slave Ship
Captain Lovett had ordered his first mate Thompson to get rid of his slave-trading crew and get a more respectable bunch for standard shipping, but when he brings his new bride Nancy aboard, he finds the same setup, including slave trade.
Show Boat
Despite her mother's objections, the naive young daughter of a show boat captain is thrust into the limelight as the company's new leading lady.
Riffraff
Fisherman Dutch marries cannery worker Hattie. After he is kicked out of his union and fired from his job he leaves Hattie who steals money for him and goes to jail. He gets a new job, foils a plot to dynamite the ship, and promises to wait for Hattie.
The Whole Town's Talking
A meek, mild-mannered clerk is mistaken for public enemy Number 1 who's his exact double and the notorious killer takes advantage of the situation.
Our Little Girl
A troubled child tries to patch up her parents' broken marriage by running away.
Danger Ahead
Captain Matthews is paid 40,000 dollars in cash by Nick Conrad for his shipment of silk from China. About 15 seconds after he gets the cash, he's lured away on a false pretence and robbed by Conrad's henchmen. Newspaper reporter Jerry Mason witnesses the robbery and steals the cash from Conrad.
The Power and the Glory
A man's life is retold just after his funeral. Beginning as a track walker, Tom Garner rose through all sorts of railroad jobs to head the company. In the meantime he lost touch with his family. When he saw what was happening it was already too late.
The Thirteenth Guest
Thirteen years ago, somebody murdered the wealthy host of a dinner party. Now, the guests from that event reunite at the creepy house where the crime took place to figure out who inherited the victim's estate.
The Hurricane Express
When his father is killed in a train wreck, Larry Baker vows to unmask a mysterious criminal called "The Wrecker," who has targeted the L&M Railroad for deadly" accidents."
Men Are Such Fools
An immigrant and his wife arrive in America hoping to make it big in the world of music. Shortly thereafter, though, the husband finds out his wife is having an affair with a local lowlife; when he turns up dead, the husband is jailed for his murder, even though he protests his innocence.
Me and My Gal
Jaunty young policeman Danny Dolan falls in love with waterfront cafe waitress Helen Riley.
Hearts of Humanity
Genial Irish NYC policeman Tom O'Hara is looking forward to the arrival of his wife and their young son, Shandy from Ireland. Several days before the ship is to dock, O'Hara gets a radiogram informing him that his wife has died at sea. That night a burglar breaks into the Antigue & Second Hand Shop ran by Sol Bloom, directly below O'Hara's flat.
The Painted Desert
Two men find an abandoned baby and fight over the ownership of the child, resulting in lifelong rivalry.
The Maltese Falcon
A lovely dame with dangerous lies employs the services of a private detective, who is quickly caught up in the mystery and intrigue of a statuette known as the Maltese Falcon.
Other Men's Women
The friendship of two working stiff railroad engineers is put to the test when one falls for the other’s wife.
Riley the Cop
In this early comedy from John Ford, Riley is a New York Irish cop sent to Germany to track down a young man who stole money from a local bakery.
In Old Arizona
A charming, happy-go-lucky bandit in old Arizona plays cat-and-mouse with the sheriff trying to catch him while he romances a local beauty.
Bringing Up Father
The wealthy Jiggs is tired of being left out of the swanky parties thrown by his social-climbing wife Maggie and their daughter. He decides to teach them a "lesson" by faking his own suicide, but things don't quite turn out the way he planned.
4 Devils
Four orphans, raised by an aging clown, becomes a high wire act in a circus. Lost film.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
The first film from director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau to be finished in the States. The film has the tangible elements of German expressionism. Murnau received a big budget from Fox and the ability to make all the filmmaking decisions. The film has been called the greatest silent film of all time.
3 Bad Men
Three outlaws come to the aid of a young girl after her father is killed. A silent film directed by John Ford.
The Iron Horse
Brandon, a surveyor, dreams of building a railway to the west. He sets off with his son, Davy, to survey a route. They discover a new pass which will shave 200 miles off the expected distance, but they are set upon by a party of Cheyenne. One of them, a white renegade with only two fingers on his right hand, kills Brandon and scalps him.
Sky High
A government agent investigates a ring that is smuggling Chinese aliens across the border from Mexico. His investigation takes him to the Grand Canyon. He finds a dazed girl wandering around who has become separated from her companions and is lost. He and the girl are soon found by her companions - the smuggling ring!
Manslaughter
Society-girl thrillseeker Lydia's fun comes to an end when she accidentally causes the death of motorcycle policeman.