Paul Hurst Trailers
The Sun Shines Bright TrailerToughest Man in Arizona TrailerBig Jim McLain Trailer
Paul Hurst (October 15, 1888 - February 27, 1953) was an American character actor of prodigious output who also directed and wrote silent films. Much of his early work was in low budget western films. A native of central California, Hurst had a first-hand knowledge of Western lore, growing up surrounded by the multi-million acre Lux & Miller ranches which ran cattle throughout the state. Visiting San Francisco as a young man, Hurst became involved in amateur theatricals and thereafter traveled to Los Angeles to join in the emerging film industry there. He began appearing in films as early as 1912, most of them Westerns. By 1916, he was directing them as well (some sources report that he served in the First World War as a member of the French Foreign Legion, but the dates of his film projects make this story highly suspect).
In the early 1920s, Hurst wrote several scenarios for films he directed and appeared in. He proved adept at working as a director for some of the cheapest producers along Gower Gulch, where movies were normally shot on location in a week or less and where stunt men were often the highest paid folks on the set. Within a few years, he focused all of his energies into acting, notably becoming one of the few successes to emerge from Hollywood's Poverty Row. Hurst quickly became one of the more prolific and familiar characters in American movies. With his blocky build and squinty demeanor, and with a raspy voice that enhanced his memorability once sound pictures came in, Hurst played villains and cops and comedy sidekicks in more than 250 films. His most famous role was that of the deserter shot dead on the stairway of Tara by Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939). Hurst was the sidekick to Monte Hale in a number of B-Westerns. Former Gower Gulch veteran John Wayne hired Hurst for Big Jim McLain (1952) knowing that Hurst was ill with terminal cancer. In 1953, at the age of 64, due to his health problems, Paul Hurst committed suicide.
Date of Death: 27 February 1953, Hollywood, California (suicide)
Most Popular Paul Hurst Trailers
Total trailers found: 236
15 December 1939
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.
24 January 1941
Robin Hoodish gangster in 1929 Chicago is an object of affection, kind to New York hood and bad to a bad crook.
20 August 1930
Peter has to be married by midnight or else his inheritance goes to his uncle... Who happens to live in a "haunted house".
22 May 1931
Chick Hewes is released from prison and finds work as an accountant. Two years later, Chick's crooked friend, Benny LaMarr, to whom he is indebted for past kindnesses, steals a diamond necklace from the home safe of the district attorney.
18 June 1943
Set at the turn of the century, smooth talking con man Eddie Johnson weasels his way into a job at friend and rival Joe Rocco's Coney Island night spot.
12 July 1934
An elderly woman provides an alibi to a man she scarcely knows who is on trial for murder of his girlfriend's racketeer father.
06 June 1930
John Nelson, a well-to-do businessman, is escorting a woman he knows as Ethel Barry to the door of her apartment suite when a man steps out of the shadows and angrily demands to know where she has been.
30 June 1933
Ruby falls in love with small-time con man Eddie. During a botched blackmail scheme, Eddie accidentally kills the man they were setting up.
14 October 1919
Two prospectors, one the father of Sky "Lightning" Bryce and the other the father of Kate Arnold, find a large gold deposit belonging to an Indian tribe.
21 November 1914
In the second entry of the popular Hazards of Helen series, Helen, is temporarily assigned as a telegraph operator at Quarry Depot; bad blood springs up between two men who are seeking Helen's favor, but to whom she has remained impartial.
05 February 1938
In this lightweight comedy, two news reporters who are engaged to be married endure romantic difficulties in their competitive pursuit of a "big scoop".
04 August 1933
Tugboat, the Narcissus, is owned and captained by Annie Brennan, and among her crew are her alcoholic but good-natured husband, Terry, and her conscientious son, Alec.
14 September 1929
Sailors Pike and Shorty are on leave when a street woman swindles them out of some money by telling them she is looking for her long-lost brother, a sailor.
01 February 1930
Colonel Lee, a homesteader, is the object of terrorists who want to drive him off the range so that his horses cannot be entered in the county races, and he refuses an offer of Martin Brierson to buy him out.
28 August 1939
A sheriff and his posse set out to catch a murderer, but their mission proves more dangerous than anyone suspected after they become stranded in the desert and attacked by Apaches.
11 January 1926
The hero must solve the murder of his benefactor within six months in order to inherit a valuable ranch.
04 May 1930
Mary Gray elopes to Atlantic City, NJ, but begins having second thoughts about the marriage. Then she becomes inexplicably locked in her hotel room, and a series of cops, robbers and kidnappers passes through.
14 May 1948
A disgraced veteran wanders the West alone until he decides to help a battered woman.
15 December 1926
On a mission to discover the identity of the rustlers of the cattle on Britton ranch, Blue Streak O'Neil exposes the villains mingling with the sheriff's posse.
16 July 1937
A movie actor playing a detective gets carried away with his role and starts trying to solve real-life crimes.
03 November 1939
New York store clerk joins a hobo and an illegal immigrant heading for his newly bought land in Arizona.
07 April 1939
A married singer, pianist/composer team are struggling to hit it big in New York. Finally, they audition before a Broadway producer, but the producer only wants the singer, leaving the husband without a job and feeling a failure.
25 September 1934
Seeking to avoid arrest while fleeing through a city park at night, two jewel thieves, Gordon and young Tommy, stash some just-stolen jewels on elderly, unknowing Martha Abbott.
10 October 1952
Marshal Landry captures outlaw Girard and bringing him in finds a woman and two children, the only survivors of an Indian attack.
16 November 1930
The story of the firemen at Engine House No.8, where widower Frank "Dad" Brooks is the beloved veteran and whose children, Milly and Jimmie, are especially fond of firemen Dan and "Beauty" Johnson.
30 September 1937
A New York City lawyer finds himself falling in love with the daughter of a screwball South Carolina family.
01 June 1917
The movie serial sequel to the popular original series featuring Stingaree. Both are now lost.
08 January 1937
John Thompson is kidnapped by mobsters after quitting his job. Then he is arrested, tried, and sentenced to death for murders they committed.
01 March 1943
"Docudrama" about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 and its results, the recovering of the ships, the improving of defense in Hawaii and the US efforts to beat back the Japanese reinforcements.
01 April 1938
A secretary (Gloria Stuart) solves a murder for her boyfriend (Michael Whalen) in the district attorney's office.
15 September 1926
After inheriting his uncle's ranch, a cowpoke manages to capture a ghost of the range, break up some cattle rustlers, and win the girl.
28 July 1937
Bob Carter, a member of the Foreign Legion, is glad to see his brother, Don, for the first time in ten years but is sorry that Don has joined the Legion.
16 June 1937
Action-filled drama about a ship captain, ashamed of his background in the slave trade, forced against his will to again transport human cargo.
20 May 1932
Corrupt alcoholic attorney Tom Cardigan is one of the best lawyers around, commanding the courtroom like a stage and often winning his cases.
10 July 1931
A popular jockey is disbarred from racing after he's accused of throwing a race.
02 December 1938
This Universal programmer was based on a Collier's Magazine story by journalist Quentin Reynolds. This story in turn was ostensibly based on a true incident, in which a gangster "returned from the dead" to save an innocent young man from the electric chair.
06 February 1915
Two tramps hold up small-town Ferndale's railway station night operator Helen, lock her in a closet, and escape.
23 July 1936
Dinner party guests become murder suspects when an extortionist they all hated turns up dead.
11 November 1946
Film about the early days of the Pony Express and the crooked businessman who opposed it.
31 March 1950
Posing as wanted men, Chris and Waldorf get hired by Sanderson. He sends them to kill the Sheriff but puts blanks in their guns.
27 September 1927
Lone wolf, who is stirring up the Indians against the wishes of his elders, gets the job of scout at the fort.
11 February 1924
A young man has a chance to become partners in an auto-repair business, but he doesn't have the money.
01 March 1927
Our hero is mistaken for a bandit. Al's girl Nancy at first believes him to be guilty, but he manage to convince her that the real bandit is McDonald.
06 April 1940
When Hollywood film studios reject her because she's too young, an Arkansas woman sets out to build a career as an actress on her own.
15 February 1941
A publicity man promotes his newspaper, but finds his boss always steals the credit.
15 July 1930
The south sea island Tonga is full of plantations and scoundrels. Ellen Bradford arrives expecting marriage to respectable and successful plantation owner only to find he is a drunk and gambler.
23 February 1948
A jeweled Madonna, property of rancher Joe Salinas, attracts two crooks to his ranch, Monica Dell, a smooth operator, and ruthless Nick Julian.
25 July 1941
As he looks over the dusty, deserted remains of the western "boom town" of Panamint, grizzled old prospector Chuckawalla Bill Redfield recalls the town's glory days.
24 May 1938
Classical violinist Roger Grant disappoints his family and teacher when he organizes a jazz band, but he and the band become successful.
31 January 1941
Pa Higgins has decided to retire but winds up being forced to run for mayor. Ladd is both boyfriend to the Higgins girl and the son of Pa's opponent.
03 June 1938
Two young men try to wrest their father from the clutches of a gold digger but by mistake think the woman is a young nightclub singer with whom they both fall in love.
31 May 1935
G-Man Jeff Crane poses as a crook to infiltrate the notorious Purple Gang, a band of hoodlums which preys upon other hoodlums.
01 April 1948
Directed by Philip Ford in 1948. When cowboy Monte Hale (Monte Hale) returns home to investigate his uncle's murder, he's mistaken for a fierce outlaw and is hired by the town's corrupt mayor, Lance Dawson (Douglas Evans), as the new sheriff.
26 October 1940
The gang is going fishing and wants to get an early start, but they end up causing all sorts of problems for the passengers of a city bus.
29 July 1949
The town of Rio Blanco is the center of a fight over the statehood issue and is a perfect setup for Lon Bryson and Chuck Bowers, who organize a couple of phony protection associations.
05 May 1946
Arriving at Medicine Bow, eastern schoolteacher Molly Woods meets two cowboys, irresponsible Steve and the "Virginian," who gets off on the wrong foot with her.
24 November 1939
A fighter trains for the big bout, and discovers that his opponent is his girlfriend's brother.
19 December 1939
Sky and Linda meet on vacation and become engaged. When Sky introduces Linda to his best friend, Jeff, Linda and Jeff fall in love and marry.
17 February 1929
Cal Stanley goes undercover as a beef buyer in order to catch the gang responsible for stealing the area's cattle.
03 April 1932
The king of a European country, who is a child, meets the cowboy star of a traveling circus.
