George Bancroft brought a tough man's bulk to gangster leads and later authority figures. His steadiness in Stagecoach gives a busy ensemble someone dependable; we rate him for knowing how much a supporting performance needs to do.
Fi1m perspective
Beside Thomas Mitchell's Doc Josiah Boone and Andy Devine's Buck in Stagecoach (1939), George Bancroft's Marshal Curly Wilcox is usefully steady. Mitchell and Devine provide much of the comedy, and some of it continues after the joke has landed. We were relieved by Bancroft's restraint when that comic business began to drag. John Ford's ensemble needs that difference between its actors; Bancroft earns his place without having to match his colleagues' appetite for a laugh.
Bancroft had broken through as the gangster Bull Weed in Underworld (1927), with the physical presence to make a tough leading character convincing. His peak as a leading man came in four films with director Josef von Sternberg between 1927 and 1929. The Docks of New York (1928) and Thunderbolt (1929) belong to that run, the latter his final lead for von Sternberg. These are the films to seek out for the earlier Bancroft, before he became the man lending authority to somebody else's story.
By 1936 the move into supporting parts was established, with MacWade in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) representative of the change. Marshals, captains and wardens became characteristic assignments. The risk in such casting is that bulk and a gruff manner will be asked to do everything, with little room for an actor to surprise us. In Stagecoach, Bancroft is worth watching alongside the more demonstrative actors, rather than merely waiting for them to speak again.
There is a limit to what the part can offer. Dudley Nichols's script sometimes decides too readily which travellers deserve our trust, leaving the cast to keep us interested after the writing has made up our minds. Bancroft helps, but his dependability does not make the character more complicated than the script allows. Start with Stagecoach, and resist the habit of watching only whoever has the funniest line.
Biography
George Bancroft (30 September 1882 – 2 October 1956) was an American film actor. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he attended the United States Naval Academy and served in the navy before working in vaudeville and on the stage.
He began his screen career in the mid-1920s and became a leading man in pre-Code Hollywood, starring in several films directed by Josef von Sternberg, including Underworld (1927), The Docks of New York (1928) and Thunderbolt (1929), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He later appeared in supporting roles in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Each Dawn I Die (1939) and as Marshal Curly Wilcox in Stagecoach (1939). Bancroft retired from acting in 1942.
