By Richard Harland Smith
Cowboy Quarterback
Brief Synopsis
A football scout tries to get a legendary runner back into the game.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Noel Smith
Director
Bert Wheeler
Harry Lynn
Marie Wilson
Maizie Williams
Gloria Dickson
Evelyn Corey
William Demarest
Rusty Walker
Eddie Foy Jr.
Steve Adams
Film Details
Also Known As
Lighthorse Harry
Genre
Comedy
Adaptation
Sports
Release Date
Jul
29,
1939
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play Elmer the Great by Ring Lardner and George M. Cohan (New York, 24 Sep 1928).
Technical Specs
Duration
56m
Film Length
6 reels
Synopsis
When Rusty Walker, a scout from the Chicago Packers professional football team, hears of the legendary prowess of Harry Lynn, a player from the backwoods of Montana, he treks West to sign the quarterback to his team. He runs into difficulty, however, when Harry, afraid that his sweetheart, Maizie Williams, will marry local boy Handsome Sam, refuses to leave Montana unless Maizie goes with him. Maizie finally consents to accompany Harry to Chicago, and Harry leaves his job as a clerk in Maizie's grocery store for the promise of fame on the field. After proving his prowess on the field by doing difficult training exercises in a fur coat, the cowboy quarterback becomes the sensation of the Packers. When Maizie begins to interfere with the team's routine, Rusty tells Harry that he has learned that Handsome Sam is on his way to Chicago. Harry agrees to have Maizie sent back to Montana. Concerned that Harry have another woman to keep him company, the Packer management fixes him up with femme fatale Evelyn Corey, and Harry quickly falls in love with her. Though Harry decides against mailing a letter informing Maizie of his plans to marry Evelyn, his roommate, Steve Adams, finds the letter and mails it for him. Later, when Harry discovers Evelyn in Rusty's arms, she announces her plans to marry Rusty. Harry returns to his room, learns that Steve has mailed the letter and rushes to the airport to intercept it before it goes out. He fails and goes to a gambling house to drink away his sorrows. Not realizing he was gambling for keeps, Harry finds himself out five thousand dollars. When the gambling racketeers try to make Harry settle his debt by fixing the next Packers game, he becomes outraged. A fight breaks out and Harry is jailed. Steve summons Maizie back to Chicago, who arrives with Handsome Sam. Because Handsome Sam has forgotten to give her Harry's letter, Maizie is oblivious to his affair with Evelyn and pays Harry's bail. Needing to redeem himself and repay Maizie's money, Harry begs the coach to play him during the last minutes of the Packers' game against the Ramblers, despite his signed agreement with the racketeers that he not play. The coach sends in his star, who rescues the the Packers from near defeat. Just before Handsome Sam hands Harry's letter to Maizie, Harry grabs it and orders the team to tackle it and run, thus preventing Maizie from ever knowing that his love for her had waivered.
Director
Noel Smith
Director
Cast
Bert Wheeler
Harry Lynn
Marie Wilson
Maizie Williams
Gloria Dickson
Evelyn Corey
William Demarest
Rusty Walker
Eddie Foy Jr.
Steve Adams
De Wolf Hopper
Handsome Sam
William Gould
Colonel Moffett
Charles Wilson
Hap Farrell
Frederic Tozere
Mr. Slater
John Harron
Mr. Gray
John Ridgely
Mr. Walters
Eddie Acuff
Airplane pilot
Clem Bevans
Lem
Sol Gorss
Cozy Walsh
Don Turner
Joe Wade
Max Hoffman Jr.
Lon Ring
Dick Wessel
Gyp Galbraith
Dutch Hendrian
Berries O'Leary
Jack Mower
Jeff Abbott
Trevor Bardette
The Indian
Claude Wisberg
Bellboy
Stuart Holmes
Airport official
Nat Carr
Hotel clerk
Garland Smith
Airport attendant
Glen Cavender
Waiter
Benny Ross
Entertainer
Frank Mayo
Guard
Creighton Hale
Broadcaster
Cliff Saum
Field announcer
Jeffrey Sayre
Photographer
Eddie Graham
Photographer
Reid Kilpatrick
Announcer
Crew
Milo Anderson
Gowns
Bryan Foy
Producer
Doug Gould
Film Editor
Les Guthrie
Assistant Director
Mark Hellinger
Producer
Howard Jackson
Music
Ted Mccord
Photography
Fred Niblo Jr.
Screenwriter
Charles Novi
Art Director
Lou Sarecky
Comedy constr
Francis J. Scheid
Sound
Harry Seymour
Dialogue Director
Jack L. Warner
Executive Producer
Film Details
Also Known As
Lighthorse Harry
Genre
Comedy
Adaptation
Sports
Release Date
Jul
29,
1939
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play Elmer the Great by Ring Lardner and George M. Cohan (New York, 24 Sep 1928).
Technical Specs
Duration
56m
Film Length
6 reels
Articles
The Cowboy Quarterback
The death of his long-time performing partner Robert Woolsey was not the only hardship shouldered by film comic Bert Wheeler in the fall of 1938. Charlie Hill, Wheeler's partner in the Palm Springs motel The Lone Pine, died two days after Woolsey, a tragedy that forced the struggling venture into receivership. Worse yet, Wheeler's wife of two years, actress Sally Haines, filed for divorce, leaving him broke and alone. The only recourse for the former Ziegfeld Follies funnyman and veteran of two dozen films was to return to work. Wheeler's first project as a solo act was The Cowboy Quarterback (1939), an RKO Radio Pictures remake of the Joe E. Brown football comedy Elmer, the Great (1933). The property had first seen life as a Ring Lardner stage play, produced on Broadway in 1928 by George M. Cohan. (Joseph L. Mankiewicz adapted the material for the 1929 baseball picture Fast Company.) Reworked for Wheeler by Fred Niblo, Jr. (whose mother was George M. Cohan's sister), The Cowboy Quarterback casts Wheeler against type as a Montana hayseed turned pro quarterback, whose rags-to-riches saga puts him in Dutch with Chicago gangsters and sets him in competition for the love of a pretty girl against future Perry Mason star William Hopper (still billing himself as DeWolf Hopper).
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
The Cowboy Quarterback
The death of his long-time performing partner Robert Woolsey was not the only hardship shouldered by film comic Bert Wheeler in the fall of 1938. Charlie Hill, Wheeler's partner in the Palm Springs motel The Lone Pine, died two days after Woolsey, a tragedy that forced the struggling venture into receivership. Worse yet, Wheeler's wife of two years, actress Sally Haines, filed for divorce, leaving him broke and alone. The only recourse for the former Ziegfeld Follies funnyman and veteran of two dozen films was to return to work. Wheeler's first project as a solo act was The Cowboy Quarterback (1939), an RKO Radio Pictures remake of the Joe E. Brown football comedy Elmer, the Great (1933). The property had first seen life as a Ring Lardner stage play, produced on Broadway in 1928 by George M. Cohan. (Joseph L. Mankiewicz adapted the material for the 1929 baseball picture Fast Company.) Reworked for Wheeler by Fred Niblo, Jr. (whose mother was George M. Cohan's sister), The Cowboy Quarterback casts Wheeler against type as a Montana hayseed turned pro quarterback, whose rags-to-riches saga puts him in Dutch with Chicago gangsters and sets him in competition for the love of a pretty girl against future Perry Mason star William Hopper (still billing himself as DeWolf Hopper).
By Richard Harland Smith
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Lighthorse Harry. Contemporary sources conflict as to who produced the film, some credit Bryan Foy, while others credit Mark Hellinger. The film marked Bert Wheeler's first solo performance after the November 1938 death of his partner, Robert Woolsey. The two were known as the comedy duo of Wheeler and Woolsey. For information on other film versions of Lardner and Cohan's play, for Elmer the Great.
