Walter Connolly makes authority funny by taking its frustrations seriously. We value his exasperated fathers and newspaper editors, particularly in his work with Frank Capra, though the bluster can become too much of the performance.
Fi1m perspective
Walter Connolly often seems offended that anyone should need telling twice. As Alexander Andrews, the millionaire father in It Happened One Night (1934), he makes the expectation of obedience funny without making the man seem foolish for having it. We laughed at his exasperation: he treats other people’s wishes as an unreasonable complication in a life that ought to run smoothly. The pleasure is in his seriousness, and in the sense that he would prefer everyone to stop treating this as a comedy.
His talkie career began in earnest in 1932, after years on the stage and early silent appearances. The familiar Connolly soon emerged in supporting comedy parts: prosperous businessmen, newspapermen and fathers with reasons to be cross. Lady for a Day (1933), with Connolly as Count Romero, was an early collaboration with Frank Capra, who directed him in four films. Capra is the director to start with, because he gives that imposing, irritable presence useful work among the other actors.
In It Happened One Night, Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert make the bickering enjoyable, while Connolly supplies a more established sort of authority for the comedy to trouble. He belongs to its pleasure in people who cannot simply agree and get on with things. We recommend the film warmly, though its assumption that the heroine needs taking in hand has worn poorly. Connolly makes the father worth watching in his own right, rather than merely someone the leads must deal with.
The hot-headed newspaper editor Oliver Stone in Nothing Sacred (1937), opposite Fredric March and Carole Lombard, is another natural fit. Howard Hawks used him as Oliver Webb in Twentieth Century (1934), while The Good Earth (1937) gave him a dramatic supporting role alongside Paul Muni. The reservation is that his indignation can become overcooked: once the bluster supplies every response, we begin to want less of it. For a first encounter, choose It Happened One Night and watch how much a supporting father can contribute without becoming the evening’s main attraction.
Biography
Walter Connolly was an American character actor who appeared in nearly 50 films from 1914 to 1939. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 8 April 1887, he began his career on the stage and appeared in twenty-two Broadway productions between 1916 and 1935.
He is best known for his role as Alexander Andrews in It Happened One Night (1934). Other notable film roles include Mr Allenbury in Libeled Lady (1936), Oliver Stone in Nothing Sacred (1937), Oliver Webb in Twentieth Century (1934), and the uncle in The Good Earth (1937). Connolly also starred as the title character in the radio series The Adventures of Charlie Chan from 1932 to 1938.
Connolly was married to actress Nedda Harrigan. He died on 28 May 1940 in Beverly Hills, California.
