Randolph Scott

In April 1917, the United States entered World War I. In July, Scott joined a unit of the North Carolina National Guard. He was trained as an artillery observer and earned promotion to corporal in October 1917 and sergeant in February 1918.[7] In May 1918, Scott entered active duty at Fort Monroe, Virginia as a member of the 2nd Trench Mortar Battalion.[8] The battalion arrived in France in June 1918, and took part in combat with the U.S. IV Corps in the Toul sector and Thiaucourt zone. After the Armistice of November 11, 1918 ended the war, the 2nd TM Battalion took part in the post-war occupation of Germany as part of U.S. VI Corps.[7]

Following the armistice, Scott enrolled in the artillery Officer Candidate School, which was located in Saumur.[8] He received his commission as a second lieutenant of Field Artillery in May 1919 and departed for the United States soon afterwards. He arrived in New York City on June 6 and reported to Camp Mills, where he received his honorable discharge on June 13.[7] Scott made use of his wartime experience in his acting career, including his training in horsemanship and the use of firearms.[9]

With his military career over Scott continued his education at Georgia Tech, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order and set his sights on becoming an all-American football player. However a back injury prevented him from achieving this goal.[10] Scott then transferred to the University of North Carolina, where he majored in textile engineering and manufacturing.[8] He eventually dropped out and went to work as an accountant in the textile firm where his father, a CPA, was employed.[11]

Around 1927, Scott developed an interest in acting and decided to make his way to Los Angeles and seek a career in the motion picture industry. Fortunately, Scott's father had become acquainted with Howard Hughes and provided a letter of introduction for his son to present to the eccentric millionaire filmmaker.[10] Hughes responded by getting Scott a small part in a George O'Brien film called Sharp Shooters (1928). A print of the film survives in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

In the next few years, Scott continued working as an extra and bit player in several films, including Weary River (1929) with Richard Barthelmess, The Far Call (1929), The Black Watch (1929) (directed by John Ford with John Wayne also uncredited) and uncredited as the Rider in The Virginian (1929) with Gary Cooper. Reputedly, Scott also served as Cooper's dialect coach in this latter film.

Scott was also uncredited on Dynamite (1929) directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and Ford's Born Reckless (1930).

On the advice of Cecil B. DeMille, Scott gained much-needed acting experience by performing in stage plays with the Pasadena Playhouse. His stage roles during this period include:[12]

• A minister in Gentlemen Be Seated
• A butler in Nellie, the Beautiful Model
• Metellus Cimber in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
• Hector Malone in George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman

In 1932 Scott appeared in a play at the Vine Street Theatre in Hollywood entitled Under a Virginia Moon. His performance in this play resulted in several offers for screen tests by the major movie studios.[10] Scott eventually signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures at a salary of US$400 per week (equivalent to $7,900 in 2021).[13]

In between his Pasadena Playhouse days and Vine Street Theatre performance Scott made his film debut.

In 1931 Scott played his first leading role (with Sally Blane) in Women Men Marry (1931), a film, now apparently lost, made by a Poverty Row studio called Headline Pictures. A silent film by the same name from 1922, directed by Edward Dillon, has apparently been preserved, however, at Filmmuseum Amsterdam.[14]

He followed that movie with a supporting part in a Warner Bros. production starring George Arliss, A Successful Calamity (1932).

With Verna Hillie in Man of the Forest, 1933

Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy, Noah Beery, Sr., Scott and Verna Hillie in Man of the Forest, 1933

Noah Beery, Sr. and Scott in Man of the Forest, 1933

Scott's first role under his new Paramount contract was a small supporting part in a comedy called Sky Bride (1932) starring Richard Arlen and Jack Oakie.

Following that, however, Paramount cast him as the lead in Heritage of the Desert (1932), his first significant starring role and also the one that established him as a Western hero. As with Women Men Marry, Sally Blane was his leading lady. Henry Hathaway made his directorial debut with Heritage of the Desert. The film was popular and Scott would go on to make ten "B" Western films loosely based on the novels of Zane Grey.

Many of these Grey adaptations were remakes of earlier silent films or even retitled versions of more recent movies. In an effort to save on production costs, Paramount utilized stock footage from the silent version and even hired some of the same actors, such as Raymond Hatton and Noah Beery, to repeat their roles, meaning that sometimes their ages would vary eight or more years during the same scene. For the 1933 films The Thundering Herd and Man of the Forest, Scott's hair was darkened and he sported a trim moustache so that he could easily be matched to footage of Jack Holt, the star of the silent versions.

In between his work in the Zane Grey Western series, Paramount cast Scott in several non-Western roles, such as "the other man" in Hot Saturday (1932), with Nancy Carroll and Cary Grant. Scott returned to Zane Grey Westerns with Wild Horse Mesa (1932), then was the romantic male lead in Hello, Everybody! (1933). The Thundering Herd (1933) was another Zane Grey Western with Hathaway, then he was in two horror movies, Murders in the Zoo (1933) with Lionel Atwill and Supernatural (1933) with Carole Lombard. After the Western Sunset Pass (1933), Paramount loaned Scott to Columbia, to play Bebe Daniels's love interest in a minor romantic comedy called Cocktail Hour (1933).

Back at Paramount, Scott acted in the Westerns Man of the Forest (1933) and To the Last Man (1933), both with Hathaway from Zane Grey novels and featuring Noah Beery Sr. as the villain. Scott was loaned to Monogram Pictures for Broken Dreams (1933) then was back with Hathaway for The Last Round-Up (1934).

Scott did three more Zane Grey Westerns without Hathaway: Wagon Wheels (1934) directed by Charles Barton (a remake of 1931's Fighting Caravans starring Gary Cooper), Home on the Range (1935) from Arthur Jacobson, and Rocky Mountain Mystery (1935) with Barton.

Film historian William K. Everson refers to the Zane Grey series as being "uniformly good".[15] He also writes:

To the Last Man was almost a model of its kind, an exceptionally strong story of feuding families in the post-Civil War era, with a cast worthy of an "A" feature, excellent direction by Henry Hathaway, and an unusual climactic fight between the villain (Jack LaRue) and the heroine (Esther Ralston, in an exceptionally appealing performance). Sunset Pass... was not only one of the best but also one of the most surprising in presenting Randolph Scott and Harry Carey as heavies.

The Zane Grey series films were a boon for Scott, as they provided him with "an excellent training ground for both action and acting".[16]

Paramount loaned Scott to RKO Radio Pictures to support Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Irene Dunne in Roberta (1935), a hugely popular adaptation of the Broadway musical. RKO liked Scott and kept him on for Village Tale (1935), directed by John Cromwell, and She (1935), an adaptation of the novel by H. Rider Haggard from the makers of King Kong.

Scott went back to Paramount for So Red the Rose (1935) with Margaret Sullavan, then was reunited with Astaire and Rogers at RKO in Follow the Fleet (1936).[17] It was another big hit.[18] Scott was in a car drama at Paramount, And Sudden Death (1936), directed by Barton, then was loaned to independent producer Edward Small, to play Hawkeye in another adventure classic, The Last of the Mohicans, adapted from the 1826 novel by James Fenimore Cooper. A big hit, the film "gave Scott his first unqualified 'A' picture success as a lead."[19]

At this point Paramount only put Scott in "A" films. He was a love interest for Mae West in Go West, Young Man (1936) and was reunited with Irene Dunne in a musical, High, Wide and Handsome (1937). This last film, a musical directed by Rouben Mamoulian, featured Scott in his "most ambitious performance."[20]

Scott went to 20th Century Fox to play the romantic male lead in a Shirley Temple film, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938). At Paramount he made a well budgeted Western The Texans (1938) with Joan Bennett then he starred in The Road to Reno (1938) at Universal.

One missed opportunity came about around this time. Due to his Southern background, Scott was considered for the role of Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, but it was Leslie Howard who eventually got the part.

Scott's contract with Paramount ended and he signed a deal with Fox. They put him in Jesse James (1939), a lavish highly romanticized account of the famous outlaw (Tyrone Power) and his brother Frank (Henry Fonda). Scott was billed fourth as a sympathetic marshal after the James brothers; it was his first film in color.

Scott was reunited with Temple in Susannah of the Mounties (1939), Temple's last profitable film for Fox. The studio gave him the lead in Frontier Marshal (1939), playing Wyatt Earp, after which he went to Columbia to star in a medium budget action film, Coast Guard (1939). Back at Fox he was in a war movie, 20,000 Men a Year (1939).

Scott went over to Warner Bros to make Virginia City (1940), billed third after Errol Flynn and Miriam Hopkins, playing Flynn's antagonist, a Confederate officer – but a sympathetic one, and not the actual villain (which was played by Humphrey Bogart). There were frequent disputes between director Michael Curtiz, actors and producer Hal Wallis about script changes. But Curtiz recalled that Scott tried to stay out of those arguments: "Randy Scott is a complete anachronism," said Curtiz. "He's a gentleman. And so far he's the only one I've met in this business..."[21] According to Nott, Curtiz and Scott got along well both personally and creatively, with Scott giving one of the top performances in his career.[21]

Scott went back to RKO to play the "other man" role in the Irene Dunne–Cary Grant romantic comedy My Favorite Wife (1940), a huge hit for RKO. For Universal, he starred with Kay Francis in When the Daltons Rode (1940). Back at Fox, Scott returned to Zane Grey country by co-starring with Robert Young in the Technicolor production Western Union, directed by Fritz Lang. Scott played a "good bad man" in this film and gave one of his finest performances. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote:

Randolph Scott, who begins to look and act more and more like William S. Hart, herein shapes one of the truest and most appreciable characters of his career as the party's scout.[22]

In 1941, Scott also co-starred with a young Gene Tierney in another western, Belle Starr. followed by a spy film with Elisabeth Bergner, Paris Calling (1941).

Scott's only role as a truly evil villain was in Universal's The Spoilers (1942), an adaptation of Rex Beach's 1905 tale of the Alaskan gold rush also starring Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne. The Dietrich-Scott-Wayne combination led to Universal casting the trio that same year in Pittsburgh, a war-time action-melodrama. Scott was billed above Wayne in both films but Wayne actually played the heroic leading man roles and enjoyed more screen time in each movie.

Shortly after the United States entered World War II, Scott attempted to obtain an officer's commission in the Marines, but because of a back injury years earlier he was rejected.[10] However, he did his part for the war effort by touring in a comedy act with Joe DeRita (who later became a member of the Three Stooges) for the Victory Committee showcases, and he also raised food for the government on a ranch that he owned.[23]

In 1942 and 1943, Scott appeared in several war films, notably To the Shores of Tripoli (1942) at Fox, Bombardier (1943) at RKO, the Canadian warship drama Corvette K-225 (1943) (produced by Howard Hawks), Gung Ho! at Universal[24] and China Sky (1945) at RKO. He also made The Desperadoes (1943), Columbia Pictures' first feature in Technicolor. The film was produced by Harry Joe Brown, with whom Scott would form a business partnership several years later.

Scott was one of many Universal stars who made a cameo in Follow the Boys (1944). He was in a "northern" with Gypsy Rose Lee, Belle of the Yukon (1944), and made a swashbuckler film for producer Benedict Bogeaus alongside Charles Laughton, the cheaply made production Captain Kidd (1945).

With Jack Lambert in Abilene Town, 1946

In 1946, after playing roles that had him wandering in and out of the saddle for many years, Scott appeared in Abilene Town, a UA[25] release which cast him in what would become one of his classic images, the fearless lawman cleaning up a lawless town. The film "cemented Scott's position as a cowboy hero"[26] and from this point on all but two of his starring films would be Westerns. The Scott Westerns of the late 1940s would each be budgeted around US$1,000,000, equal to $13,900,000 today. Scott mostly made Westerns for producers Nat Holt or Harry Joe Brown at Warner Bros, although he did make Albuquerque (1948) at Paramount.

The BFI Companion to the Western noted:

In his earlier Westerns ... the Scott persona is debonair, easy-going, graceful, though with the necessary hint of steel. As he matures into his fifties his roles change. Increasingly Scott becomes the man who has seen it all, who has suffered pain, loss, and hardship, and who has now achieved (but at what cost?) a stoic calm proof against vicissitude.[1]

Scott's last non-Westerns were a mystery with Peggy Ann Garner at Fox, Home Sweet Homicide (1947), and a family drama for Bogeaus, Christmas Eve (1947). He also had a cameo in Warners' Starlift (1951).

Scott did two Westerns for Nat Holt at RKO, Badman's Territory (1946) and Trail Street (1947). He followed it with another pair for Holt at that studio, Return of the Bad Men (1948) at RKO and Canadian Pacific (1949), then they did Fighting Man of the Plains (1950) and The Cariboo Trail (1950) at Fox.

Scott also made Rage at Dawn in 1955 for Nat Holt, which was released by RKO starring Scott and Forrest Tucker, and featuring Denver Pyle, Edgar Buchanan, J. Carrol Naish and Myron Healey. It purports to tell the true story of the Reno Brothers, an outlaw gang which terrorized the American Midwest, particularly in the area around Seymour, Indiana, soon after the American Civil War.

Scott renewed his acquaintance with producer Harry Joe Brown at Columbia with Gunfighters (1947). They began producing many of Scott's Westerns, including several that were shot in the two-color Cinecolor process. Their collaboration resulted in the film Coroner Creek (1948) with Scott as a vengeance-driven cowpoke who "predates the Budd Boetticher/Burt Kennedy heroes by nearly a decade,"[27] and The Walking Hills (1949), a modern-day tale of gold hunters directed by John Sturges.

They followed it with The Doolins of Oklahoma (1949), The Nevadan (1950), Santa Fe (1951), Man in the Saddle (1951), Hangman's Knot (1952), The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953) (shot in 3-D), Ten Wanted Men (1955), and A Lawless Street (1955) (with Angela Lansbury.)

Scott did Colt .45 (1950) at Warner Bros. where his salary was US$100,000 per picture (equal to $1,100,000 today). He stayed at the studio to do Sugarfoot (1951), Fort Worth (1951), Carson City (1952), The Man Behind the Gun (1953), Thunder Over the Plains (1953), Riding Shotgun (1954), Tall Man Riding (1955) Most of these were directed by André de Toth.

Also of interest is Shootout at Medicine Bend shot in 1955, but released in 1957, which was Scott's last movie in black and white. The movie co-stars James Garner and Angie Dickinson.[28]

By 1956, Scott turned 58, an age where the careers of most leading men would be winding down. Scott, however, was about to enter his most acclaimed period.

With Nancy Gates in Comanche Station, 1960

In 1955, screenwriter Burt Kennedy wrote a script entitled Seven Men from Now which was scheduled to be filmed by John Wayne's Batjac Productions with Wayne as the film's star and Budd Boetticher as its director. However, Wayne was already committed to John Ford's The Searchers. Wayne therefore suggested Scott as his replacement.[29] The resulting film, released in 1956, did not make a great impact at the time but is now regarded by many as one of Scott's best, as well as the one that launched Scott and Boetticher into a successful collaboration that totalled seven films.

While each film is independent and there are no shared characters or settings, this set of films is often called the Ranown Cycle, for the production company run by Scott and Harry Joe Brown, which was involved in their production.[30] Kennedy scripted four of them. In these films ...

Boetticher achieved works of great beauty, formally precise in structure and visually elegant, notably for their use of the distinctive landscape of the California Sierras. As the hero of these "floating poker games" (as Andrew Sarris calls them), Scott tempers their innately pessimistic view with quiet, stoical humour, as he pits his wits against such charming villains as Richard Boone in The Tall T and Claude Akins in Comanche Station.[1]

After 7th Cavalry (1956), Boetticher, Kennedy and Scott were reunited for their second film, The Tall T (1957), which co-starred Richard Boone. The third in the series was Decision at Sundown (1957), although that script was not written by Kennedy. The unofficial series continued with Buchanan Rides Alone (1958). Westbound (1959) is not considered part of the official cycle, although Boetticher directed it. However the last two, both written by Kennedy, were: Ride Lonesome (1959) and Comanche Station (1960)

In 1962 Scott made his final film appearance in Ride the High Country. It was directed by Sam Peckinpah and co-starred Joel McCrea, an actor who had a screen image similar to Scott's and who also from the mid-1940s on devoted his career almost exclusively to Westerns.

Scott and McCrea's farewell Western is characterized by a nostalgic sense of the passing of the Old West; a preoccupation with the emotionality of male bonding and of the experiential "gap" between the young and the old; and the fearful evocation, in the form of the Hammonds (the villains in the film), of these preoccupations transmuted into brutal and perverse forms.[1]

McCrea's role in the film is slightly larger than Scott's, although arguably less colorful, but Scott was billed above McCrea after the director tossed a coin over top billing that came up favoring Scott.