Big Jack

It's 1802 in the backwoods of America. Dr. Alexander Meade (Richard Conte) is set to be hanged for grave robbing. He's been stealing bodies to study for medical science. He is rescued by Big Jack Horner (Wallace Beery), Flapjack Kate (Marjorie Main) and their band of outlaws. Big Jack forces him to join the group.

This is Wallace Beery's last film. He would soon die after its release. He is still the biggest personality on the screen in this one. He is in his full power. It is what it is. This is playing up the comedy whether it's there or not. Most of the time, it's not really there. It's end of a long career.

Big Jack turned out to be the swan song for Wallace Beery one of the mainstays of MGM ever since the era of sound. If Big Jack isn't the best film Wallace Beery ever did it certainly will provide the film historian and fan with what would most assuredly be called a typical Wallace Beery role.

The film is set in the Jacksonian era of American history with Beery leading a pack of bandits. On an impulse he rescues Richard Conte from a lynching party and since he's been wounded the fact that Conte is a doctor comes in handy.

But what Conte is being lynched for is stealing dead bodies from graves to use in experiments. Conte is a scientist and while he's not conducting Frankenstein like experiments, those are the fears of the local populace. And while grave robbing is not a hanging offense, that's not an argument to make to those people whose loved one's corpses are being experimented on.

Marjorie Main teamed with Wallace Beery for many films, she was his most frequent screen partner after Marie Dressler died. Beery and Main worked well together and Big Jack is a great example of their chemistry.

Wallace Beery was also a great example of the screen image totally being the opposite of the man. In real life Beery was a miserly and misanthropic individual who few would ever have said a kind word about. Far from the lovable lug that he was best known for after his Oscar winning performance in The Champ.

Beery with his hair grown long for the part, did not look well at all during the film. While Big Jack will never be classified as one of his great films, it's a good example of the appeal that Wallace Beery had with the American movie-going public.

Rest In Peace Wallace Beery for you will always be remembered for a fulfilling and everlasting portfolio of wonderful roles and none better than this your last film (which no one would have ever guessed, nor expected to be his last great role).

Wallace Beery plays the rough, gruff Big Jack Horner who is leading a gang of outlaws when he accidentally stumbles upon a lynch mob in the process of hanging Dr. Alexander Meade (Richard Conte). Guns a firing, Jack Horner and the gang quickly disperse the lynch mob and save Dr. Alexander Meade from being hanged.

But their is a steep price that Dr. Alexander Meade must pay to Big Jack Horner for saving him from a rope necklace and the hanging tree. Big Jack advise Dr. Meade that he would like him to become the outlaws personal physician.

Unfortunately both men are polar opposites, one man, Big Jack, has no scruples and will just take whatever he wants including the employment of Dr. Meade without even blinking. Dr. Meade, on the other hand, is a very ethical and law abiding citizen whose only desire in life is to learn as much as he can about the care and treatment of human beings through the advancement of medicine and surgical procedures.

With these two men being in a stalemate and both being very stubborn the chase for superiority continues throughout the film and we the audience get to witness the thought and actions of these two warriors.

I give the film a well deserved 10 out of 10 IMDb rating not just for this being a classic black and white western film, but even more so for rewarding the film legacy of the late, great Wallace Beery's last film role. Rest In Peace Mr. Beery. You are greatly missed.

Shortly before the heart attack that ended his life and career, Wallace Beery played "Big Jack," an outlaw paired with Marjorie Main as "Flapjack Kate," living in the woods as head of a gang. Veteran tough guy Jack Lambert interrupts the hanging of a handsome young doctor, Richard Conte, to remove a bullet from Big Jack's leg. Hoping to forestall the doctor's impending departure, a pretty young woman is kidnapped to maintain his interest. Gene Fowler's screenplay was more tiresome and tepid than the usual vehicles for the highly unusual Beery: no cute children are employed to make him sympathetic, hence, a box office loss for MGM. Edward Arnold and Charles Dingle appear in support. If any actor ever seemed to have learned anything from Beery, it may have been Robert Newton.

Big Jack starts off in 1802, with a man (Richard Conte) about to be hanged in Maryland. Marjorie Main is Flapjack Kate. The larger than life actor Wallace Beery is "Big Jack" (Big Jack Horner... not Little Jack Horner). Jack is sick. Conte is Meade, the new doc, who heals him up, and has to decide if he will join the gang, which Jack leads. Jack even brings back a girl for Meade. Good stuff happens. Bad stuff happens. Lots of lessons learned. Beery plays it WAY over the top, while Conte plays it pretty straight. Its a strange combination of an old western, humor, with a sort of "history of medicine" story worked in. Oddly, it works out quite well. Lots of fun banter between Beery and Main. Last film Beery made. Well worth the time.

I'm surprised that it only is rated 6.5 as of today. Now that TCM shows it, I would expect more people to see and rate it. Directed by Richard Thorpe. Story by Robert Thoeren, who was born (and died) in Europe.