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[Update: Please congratulate Mary Mallory, who recognized this as the 1927 production of “Jesse James.”] Today, our mystery crew is filming a stagecoach. |
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[Update: According to imdb, “Jesse James” is a lost film, and although it is evidently missing, it still gets 6 stars, which says something about imdb’s rating system!] Here’s our mystery camera crew… … our mystery camera car …. … a mystery fellow doing a little work on our mystery stagecoach…. [Update: One of the fellows in costume is Fred Thomson.] … our mystery talent …. … and our mystery guy standing around. And where are the horses? Another mystery! |
ladailymirror.com 
Two easy observations: 1, The camera car was licensed in 1927; 2, The camera is hand cranked. Despite the above, everything else looks a bit more recent.
Guessing that it is a second unit shooting MOS (mit out sound); but the film itself is probably a western talkie.
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The first mystery talent guy standing on the stagecoach reminds me of “Seymour”, who used to introduce horror movies on KTLA on Saturday afternoons in the early 70’s.
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mystery talent in foreground could be relative of Stacy Keach
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Further guess. ‘Seymour’ is probably with a stunt double or stand-in for the long shots of the sequence. Now that said, he could be John Carradine’s double for John Ford’s, ‘Stagecoach’.
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Harry Woods in JESSE JAMES (1927)?
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Is that a stagecoach or a mud wagon? Concord stagecoaches weighed a ton and would keep you feet dry crossing a small stream and had springs to make riding easier. Mud wagons had none of these features. I suspect they’re filming an old tyme scene where a silent film crew is photographing the mud wagon.
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I meant Harry Woods.
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Doesn’t it look like the guys with the caps are wearing them inside out?
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Fred Thomson must be between Harry Woods (Man in black) and the other mustachioed man, because all the photos I looked at yesterday for this title have him clean shaven.
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I hate to disagree, but none of those gentlemen on the stagecoach look like Fred Thomson at all, at least not to me. The one furthest to the back looks a little like him, but is too chubby and too old. Fred wasn’t really skinny, but he didn’t have a paunch:
http://www.aglimpse.com/images/et/lc024.jpg
Here’s a link to my own blog (if that isn’t too narcissistic) with a publicity photo of Fred:
http://www.shebloggedbynight.com/2010/12/frances-marion-fred-thomson.html
Also of note, while I can’t find any actual photos from the film, the promotional poster doesn’t have Thomson in a mustache.
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All I have for reference is the caption information on the back of the picture. It’s an undated photo and I assume it is from 1927. I would, of course, welcome any further information on the film, especially because it is evidently lost.
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The only one that could possibly be Fred is the clean shaven one at the far left, but Stacia is right, he is too paunchy. The man in black is Harry Woods, who I identified by looking at a Western book which breaks down heroes, heavies, and sidekicks, and then looking at films he did in 1927. He was tall, with black hair and a black mustache.
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Hey, that IS Harry Woods! You have a great eye for faces, Mary.
I would love to know more about this film. I always wondered why we didn’t know more about it, because the subject matter alone should have made a lot of people interested. It’s allegedly based on the book written by Jesse James’ son. You’d think there would be more publicity stills and promotional material for this film out there, but the world of silent films is mysterious and confusing.
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