Douglas Walton -- Filmography and Noteworthy Roles

Douglas Walton made a total of 60 movies.  Some were brilliant.  Some he didn't appear at all.


Douglas Walton has a total of 60 movies under his filmography between 1931 to 1950.  I've watched 52 films of his.  Among them were some uncredited roles and parts that didn't make it to the final cut -- hence that's why some of the uncredited ones were listed as "uncredited."


FILMOGRAPHY
★ = I've seen it
Red = He's not in it, or I didn't see him

 1931 Body and Soul  (Uncredited)
1931 Always Goodbye       as Party Gossip (Uncredited) ★
1931 Over the Hill       as Stephen (Uncredited) ★
1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  as Blond Student (Uncredited) ★
1932 Scarface      as Cesca's Boyfriend (Uncredited) ★
1933 Cavalcade as Soldier Friend of Joe (Uncredited) ★
1933 The Secret of Madame Blanche    as Leonard Junior ★
1933 Looking Forward        as Willie Benton ★
1934 Madame Spy        as Karl
1934 The Lost Patrol       as Pearson ★
1934 Murder in Trinidad as Gregory Bronson ★
1934 Shock      as Gilroy Hayworth ★
1934 The Count of Monte Cristo     as Albert ★
1934 Charlie Chan in London as Paul Gray ★
1935 Captain Hurricane     as Jimmy Howell ★
1935 The Bride of Frankenstein      as Percy Bysshe Shelley ★
1935 The Dark Angel      as Roulston (Uncredited) ★
1935 Mutiny on the Bounty        as Stewart ★
1935 Hitch Hike Lady       as Alfred Bosworth Blake (Uncredited)
1936 The Garden Murder Case        as Floyd Garden ★
1936 I Conquer the Sea! as Leonard Ashley ★
1936 Mary of Scotland        as Lord Darnley ★
1936 Thank You, Jeeves! as Edward McDermott ★
1936 Camille        as Henri (Uncredited) ★
1937 Damaged Goods       as George Dupont ★
1937 Flight from Glory        as Garth Hilton ★
1937 Nation Aflame      as Tommy Franklin ★
1937 Wallaby Jim of the Islands        as Norman Brooks ★
1938 Storm Over Bengal      as Terry ★
1939 Pacific Liner        as Engineering Officer Bates (Uncredited) ★
1939 The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle as Student Pilot ★
1939 The Sun Never Sets as Carpenter ★
1939 Bad Lands      as Bob Mulford ★
1939 Raffles        as Bunny ★
1940 Northwest Passage as Lieutenant Avery ★
1940 Too Many Girls        as Beverly Waverly ★
1940 The Long Voyage Home     as Second Mate ★
1940 The Letter        as Well Wisher (Uncredited) ★
1941 Singapore Woman        as Roy Bennett ★
1941 One Night in Lisbon        as Frank (Uncredited) ★
1941 Hurry, Charlie, Hurry        as Michael Prescott ★
1942 Jesse James, Jr. as Archie McDonald ★
1942 Desperate Journey as British Officer Playing Dice (Uncredited) ★
1944 Murder, My Sweet as Lindsay Marriott ★
1945 Bring On the Girls as Edgar (Uncredited) ★
1945 The Picture of Dorian Gray        as Allen Campbell ★
1945 Kitty as Philip (Uncredited) ★
1946 Our Hearts Were Growing Up        as Terence Marlowe (Uncredited)
1946 Cloak and Dagger        as British Pilot (Uncredited) ★
1946 Dick Tracy vs. Cueball        as Percival Priceless ★
1947 High Conquest as Hugo Bunning as a Young man
1947 High Tide as Clinton Vaughn
1947 Green Dolphin Street        as Sir Charles Maloney (Uncredited) ★
1947 Forever Amber as Fop (Uncredited) ★
1948 Hills of Home as Minister (Uncredited)
1948 Command Decision as Englishman on Loudspeaker (Voice, Uncredited) ★
1948 Trouble Preferred    as Slippy Patterson, Pickpocket (Uncredited)
1949 The Secret of St. Ives as Allan St. Ives ★
1949 Calamity Jane and Sam Bass as Bookmaker (Uncredited) ★
1950 Three Came Home as Australian POW (Uncredited, final film role) ★



Details on the movies Douglas Walton didn't show up in....

  • Scarface (1932) as Cesca's Boyfriend -- Was replaced by some other guy.
  • Camille (1936) as Henri -- Could be a deleted scene?
  • One Night in Lisbon (1941) as Frank -- Could be a deleted scene?
  • Kitty (1945) as Philip -- Could be a deleted scene?
  • Forever Amber (1947) as Fop -- Could be a background character, but I didn't see him.
  • Green Dolphin Street (1947) as Sir Charles Maloney -- Could be a deleted scene?

In "Scarface" (1932) with Ann Dvorak as Cesca Camonte and NOT Douglas Walton as Cesca's boyfriend.

Apparently "Cesca's Boyfriend" from Scarface shared a scene with Douglas Walton (played simply as Blond Student) in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1931).  Now I'm wondering if these two were friends in real life...If anyone knows this actor's name, let me know!

...and also in "Cavalcade" (1933).  Both Douglas Walton and "Cesca's Boyfriend" were pretty entertaining in this movie.




Feel free to prove me wrong on this.  Let me know if he actually did make an appearance in any of the 6 listed movies above.



Douglas Walton's NOTEWORTHY ROLES!

Douglas Walton as Lord Darnley  in “Mary of Scotland” (1936).

From what I've read from IMDB and Wikipedia, Douglas Walton's role of Lord Darnley in Mary of Scotland (1936) was lauded to be his best performance.  Indeed he was impressive as the fussy king and husband of Mary Queen of Scots, ranging from soft playfulness and hopeless fawning, to drunken disdain and explosive anger, to fear and emotional turmoil.  But there is one role where, in my opinion, was just as good if not better than Lord Darnley.  That is Leonard St. John Jr. in The Secret of Madame Blanche (1933).  In this film, he played as the“long lost” son of Sally Sanders (Madame Blanche) who was played by Irene Dunne.  A very different character from that of Lord Darnley, but Walton's acting range was just as versatile and wide in this performance.  From boyish arrogance and mischievous playfulness, to reckless drunkenness, to charming gratitude, to fear and dreadful shock, to emotional guilt and frustration, to rebellious anger, and to hopeful sincerity.  Also he was a much more likeable character in this movie as oppose to the not-so-likeable Lord Darnley.     

Douglas Walton as Leonard St. John Junior  in “The Secret of Madame Blanche ” (1933).
   

Douglas Walton is definitely not the most popular film actor in history as his career mostly comprises of small roles, with some much larger and prominent than others (particular in the 1930's).  Despite of that, he did have moments of brilliance in many of his scenes, big or small.  Here are the films, other than Mary of Scotland and The Secret of Madame Blanche, where he had noteworthy performances (again, this is just my opinion!  You can add yours in the comment section) :  The Lost Patrol (1934), Shock (1934), Charlie Chan in London (1934), Captain Hurricane (1935), The Dark Angel (1935), Nation Aflame (1937), Bad Lands (1939), Murder, My Sweet (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946), The Secret of St. Ives (1949)


 Honorable Mentions:  Looking Forward (1933), The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), The Garden Murder Case (1936), Flight From Glory (1937), Pacific Liner (1939), The Sun Never Sets (1939) , Jesse James, Jr. (1942)

 LEADING Roles (or almost to it) :  Murder in Trinidad (1934), I Conquer the Sea! (1936), Damaged Goods (1937)

 Chunky Roles:  The Secret of Madame Blanche (1933), Murder in Trinidad (1934), Captain Hurricane (1935), I Conquer the Sea! (1936), Mary of Scotland (1936), Damaged Goods (1937), Wallaby Jim of the Islands (1937), Bad Lands (1939), Jesse James, Jr. (1942), The Secret of St. Ives (1949)

Comedic Moments:  Over the Hill (1931), Captain Hurricane (1935), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Hurry, Charlie, Hurry (1941), Bring on the Girls (1945)


 Having watched well over 50 films of Douglas Walton, I noticed there are some recurring tropes in his characters, even though many of them are quite different from one another.  Here's some examples:
  • British (that's just him)
  • Soldiers or military types
  • The best friend or sidekick
  • The young one or student
  • The cheeky and mischievous one 
  • The coward or the weakling
  • Someone else's relative
  • Committed suicide or thinking about suicide 
  • Gets killed off (this happens A LOT)
  • Gets into affairs
  • Redeemed himself in the end of the movie
  • The Boyfriend
  • In adventure movies often in jungles, islands, and deserts
  • In movies with international and racial relations (many were quite progressive for its time!)
  • Ambiguous sexuality
  • Smoker (or that's just him)
  • Gambling problem
  • Nervous outbursts
  • Come from a rich family
  • The nice and sensible guy
There's probably more, but that's all I can think of. 


"Douglas Walton claims he has never done a pic in which he hasn't died, been killed or suffered from mental anguish."  (Variety 1936 -- Britons in Hollywood)

He wasn't wrong about that.  It's true that his characters get killed off a lot.  He even joked that "an actor is never dead in pictures if he knows how to die convincingly."  And not to mention that he actually died more than Sean Bean!  Sean Bean has an onscreen death rate of about 17% (23 deaths out of 132 film/TV appearances as of 2020).  Douglas Walton is 22%, with at least 13 onscreen deaths out of 60 films (32% if counting his offscreen deaths, totaling at 19).  I never knew there'd be anyone that would outdo Sean Bean!



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