By Glenn Erickson
Big Jack
Brief Synopsis
A pair of thieves swindle their way through the gay '90s.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Richard Thorpe
Director
Wallace Beery
Big Jack Horner
Richard Conte
Dr. Alexander Meade
Marjorie Main
Flapjack Kate
Edward Arnold
Mayor Mahoney
Vanessa Brown
Patricia Mahoney
Film Details
Also Known As
Big Harp, Big Jack Horner, The Great Harp
Genre
Western
Comedy
Drama
Release Date
Apr
29,
1949
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 25m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7,630ft
(9 reels)
Synopsis
In 1802, in the backwoods of Maryland and Virginia, young physician Dr. Alexander Meade is being hanged for grave-robbing, a practice necessary for his medical experiments, when members of a notorious band of thieves save him from death and deliver him to their chief, Big Jack Horner. Although Big Jack is feared by all who know of his reputation, a glimpse of his generosity shows through his rough-hewn exterior after Meade successfully patches up his wounded leg. As a token of his appreciation, Big Jack offers Meade an antique timepiece, but the doctor refuses, asking only to be permitted to do his work and to have his books returned to him. Eager to please Meade, Big Jack goes to Marlborough County and engages the sheriff in a gunfight to gain possession of the doctor's seized belongings. Later, Big Jack presents Meade with a pretty young woman named Patricia Mahoney, who was taken by Big Jack against her will to be Meade's bride. Patricia, however, thinks that Meade had requested their arranged coupling and shows contempt for him when they meet. Meanwhile, Valentine, one of Big Jack's men, spreads the news about Meade's crimes. Big Jack rises to Meade's defense, however, explaining that the only difference between their profession and his is that they "rob the living and he robs the dead." Big Jack continues to insist that Meade stay by his side, and now that Big Jack knows that he can repay his debt to Meade by furnishing him with dead bodies on which to experiment, he considers killing the sickly men in his gang in the name of science. Meade, fearing Big Jack's overzealous approach, insists that the corpses he work on be those of men who died from natural causes. One evening, Meade escapes with Patricia and returns her to her home in Montaville. When Meade realizes that he has fallen in love with Patricia, he decides to stay in Montaville and set up a practice. Big Jack, meanwhile, has become distraught since his pal Meade escaped, and vows to find him and bring him back. Disguised in clothing stolen from a couple they pass in a stagecoach, Big Jack and his wife, Flapjack Kate, make haste for Montaville. There a gun battle between Big Jack's men and half the town ensues when Meade orders Big Jack to leave. Meade is taken by force to Big Jack's camp, where he demands that Big Jack return the money he stole from the Montaville bank. Big Jack initially rejects Meade's demand, but after Flapjack Kate helps Meade escape, he rethinks the method he is using to win Meade's friendship and returns the money to the bank and makes amends with Meade. Later, while Meade undertakes a delicate abdominal operation on Patricia's ailing sister Sarah, Patricia's father, the Mayor of Montaville, leads a posse to drive the grave-robbing doctor out of town. As Meade races against time to save Sarah's life and his own, Big Jack arrives with his men and succeeds in keeping the posse from storming Sarah's house. However, when the men in the posse mistakenly think that the operation has failed, they engage Big Jack and his men in a gunfight. Big Jack is mortally wounded in the battle, but before he dies he presents Meade with a token of his friendship: the timepiece the doctor had initially refused to accept when he successfully operated on his wounded leg.
Director
Richard Thorpe
Director
Cast
Wallace Beery
Big Jack Horner
Richard Conte
Dr. Alexander Meade
Marjorie Main
Flapjack Kate
Edward Arnold
Mayor Mahoney
Vanessa Brown
Patricia Mahoney
Clinton Sundberg
C. Petronius Smith
Charles Dingle
Mathias Taylor
Clem Bevans
Saltlick Joe
Jack Lambert
Bud Valentine
Will Wright
Will Farnsworth
Wm. "bill" Phillips
Toddy
Syd Saylor
Pokey
Vince Barnett
Tom Speed
Trevor Bardette
John Oakes
Andy Clyde
Putt Cleghorn
Edith Evanson
Widow Simpson
Tom Fadden
Sheriff Summers
Robert B. Williams
Jed "Deputy"
Eddie Dunn
Coachman
Francis Mcdonald
Prisoner
Minerva Urecal
Mrs. Summers
Florence Auer
Homely woman
Henry Sylvester
Second passenger
Joan Blair
Girl
Eddie Parks
Innkeeper
Hank Bell
Driver
Milton Parsons
Schoolmaster Merritt
Ann Doran
Sarah Mahoney
Bob Rose
Little man
John Phipps
Passenger
Del Henderson
Passenger
William Bailey
Passenger
Dick Alexander
Bandit
Lynn Farr
Bandit
Jimmy Martin
Bandit
Lane Bradford
Bandit
Casey Macgregor
Bandit
Cactus Mack
Bandit
Carl Sepulveda
Bandit
Billy Dix
Bandit
Robert Filmer
Bandit
Fred Gilman
Bandit
Carol Henry
Posse member
Hollis Bane
Posse member
Frank Mcgrath
Posse member
Frank Mccarroll
Posse member
Naomi Childers
Townsperson
Florence Howard
Townsperson
E. Mason Hopper
Townsperson
Helen Dickson
Woman in Buggy
Jim Pierce
Man in Buggy
Polly Bailey
Crew
George Boemler
Film Editor
Marvin Borowsky
Screenwriter
Jack Dawn
Makeup created by
Randall Duell
Art Director
Gene Fowler
Screenwriter
Cedric Gibbons
Art Director
Sydney Guilaroff
Hair styles Designer by
Hugh Hunt
Associate (Sets)
Al Jennings
Assistant Director
André Previn
Music Conductor
Gottfried Reinhardt
Producer
Douglas Shearer
Recording Director
Herbert Stothart
Music Score
Robert Surtees
Director of Photography
Robert Thoeren
Story
Valles
Costume Design
Osso Van Eyss
Screenwriter
Edwin B. Willis
Set Decoration
Film Details
Also Known As
Big Harp, Big Jack Horner, The Great Harp
Genre
Western
Comedy
Drama
Release Date
Apr
29,
1949
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 25m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7,630ft
(9 reels)
Articles
Big Jack -
Wallace Beery had played comedy roles, villains and blustering men of adventure in silent films, and when sound came in found perhaps his best co-star Marie Dressler in Min and Bill (1930). Almost as wild and wooly in real life as his famous screen characters Long John Silver and Pancho Villa, Beery reportedly lost two wives (one of them the legendary Gloria Swanson) due to excessive drinking. Yet Beery remained a popular MGM star until his death in April of 1949. Released two weeks later, Big Jack sees him playing to his strengths as a Maryland highwayman circa 1810, a 'roughneck with a heart of gold'. Jack is harassed and hugged by his wife (Marjorie Main), broad antics that serve as comedy relief within historian James Thomas Flexner's fairly serious story about the development of medical science. Frequently in need of a doctor's assistance, robber Jack becomes involved in the murky doings of Dr. Meade (Richard Conte), whose experiments require the illegal practice of exhuming corpses for study. The outlaw forms a partnership with the idealistic Dr. Meade, who decides to defy the rules of his profession by performing an experimental 'operation' on a sick little girl. As is the custom with sentimental Wallace Beery vehicles, Big Jack's big heart saves the day. Trade reviews couldn't decide whether Big Jack was a comedy or a drama, but all seemed to agree that its subject matter was revolting. Grave robbing might be acceptable activity for Boris Karloff in the horror hit The Body Snatcher (1945), but not in light entertainment for the whole family. Cue magazine summed up the consensus opinion: "...ghoulish business -- a cheap and tasteless mess about a medical grave robber, a low-comedy bandit and their joint vivisection troubles."
By Glenn Erickson
By Glenn Erickson
Big Jack -
Wallace Beery had played comedy roles, villains and blustering men of adventure in silent films, and when sound came in found perhaps his best co-star Marie Dressler in Min and Bill (1930). Almost as wild and wooly in real life as his famous screen characters Long John Silver and Pancho Villa, Beery reportedly lost two wives (one of them the legendary Gloria Swanson) due to excessive drinking. Yet Beery remained a popular MGM star until his death in April of 1949. Released two weeks later, Big Jack sees him playing to his strengths as a Maryland highwayman circa 1810, a 'roughneck with a heart of gold'. Jack is harassed and hugged by his wife (Marjorie Main), broad antics that serve as comedy relief within historian James Thomas Flexner's fairly serious story about the development of medical science. Frequently in need of a doctor's assistance, robber Jack becomes involved in the murky doings of Dr. Meade (Richard Conte), whose experiments require the illegal practice of exhuming corpses for study. The outlaw forms a partnership with the idealistic Dr. Meade, who decides to defy the rules of his profession by performing an experimental 'operation' on a sick little girl. As is the custom with sentimental Wallace Beery vehicles, Big Jack's big heart saves the day. Trade reviews couldn't decide whether Big Jack was a comedy or a drama, but all seemed to agree that its subject matter was revolting. Grave robbing might be acceptable activity for Boris Karloff in the horror hit The Body Snatcher (1945), but not in light entertainment for the whole family. Cue magazine summed up the consensus opinion: "...ghoulish business -- a cheap and tasteless mess about a medical grave robber, a low-comedy bandit and their joint vivisection troubles."
By Glenn Erickson
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Working titles for this film were Big Harp, Big Jack Horner and The Great Harp. This was the last picture of actor Wallace Beery, who died of heart failure on April 15, 1949. The sixty-year-old Beery had been under contract to M-G-M for nineteen years. According to an August 1948 Los Angeles Times article, the story was "written originally by James Thomas Flexner," but his contribution to the released film has not been confirmed. A February 1948 Los Angeles Times article indicates that Spencer Tracy was set for role played by Richard Conte, and that Robert Taylor and Van Johnson were considered for the part played by Beery.
