Humorous references to Farnesbarnes, or Farnsbarns, in two early 1930s movies sent me in search of the name’s origins. Unfortunately the earliest I could find dates to BBC’s Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh in 1944, over a decade after the RKO film utterances.
RKO’s Hell’s Highway (1932) Beats Other Chain Gang Movie to Theaters
It’s tempting to call RKO’s Hell’s Highway (1932) a knockoff on I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. However the Richard Dix movie came first. A long essay looking at Hell’s Highway, Dix, the Etude Ethiopian Chorus and that other Chain Gang movie.
8 Questions for Author Dan Van Neste About The Whistler Film Series
Dan Van Neste, author of The Whistler: Stepping Into the Shadows, answers 8 questions about Columbia’s film series The Whistler starring Richard Dix.
It Happened in Hollywood (1937) Starring Richard Dix and Fay Wray
Richard Dix plays cowboy star Tim Bart of the silent screen in It Happened in Hollywood (1937). The problem for Dix and his leading lady, played by Fay Wray, is that talkies have arrived to disrupt their lives.
The Conquerors (1932) Starring Richard Dix and Ann Harding
I watched a pair of Richard Dix films this week, the Oscar winning Cimarron from 1931 and The Conquerors released the following year. This review focuses on the film I liked better.