Big Jack is a 1949 American Western film starring Wallace Beery, Richard Conte and Marjorie Main. The movie was directed by Richard Thorpe, and the screenplay was written by Gene Fowler and Otto Eis from the novel by Robert Thoeren. The picture is a comedy-drama, set on the American frontier in the early 1800s, about outlaws who befriend a young doctor in legal trouble for acquiring corpses for anatomical research.
This was Wallace Beery's final film, believed to be his 230th. He died on April 15, 1949, at age 64, three days after this movie's release. Also the final film to have a musical score by Herbert Stothart, who had died two months before the film's release.
Contents
Cast
Wallace Beery as Big Jack Horner
Richard Conte as Dr. Alexander Meade
Marjorie Main as Flapjack Kate
Edward Arnold as Mayor Mahoney
Vanessa Brown as Patricia Mahoney
Clinton Sundberg as C. Petronius Smith
Charles Dingle as Mathias Taylor
Clem Bevans as Saltlick Joe
Jack Lambert as Bud Valentine
Will Wright as Will Farnsworth
William Phillips as Toddy
Syd Saylor as Pokey
Andy Clyde as Putt Clegghorn
Richard Alexander as Bandit (uncredited)
Reception
According to MGM records the film earned $759,000 in the US and Canada and $156,000 elsewhere, resulting in a $291,000 loss.