Edmund Lowe

Introduction

Edmund Lowe had a nearly fifty year acting career on stage and in silent and sound films. Lowe appeared in films for 37 years, as a star during his younger years and a character actor as he aged. A handsome man, well dressed and neatly tailored, with black hair, parted in the middle and plastered to his head, and a prominent, waxed mustache. His voice was clear and deep with excellent diction, his manner suave and gentlemanly.

His greatest hit was the silent comedy What Price Glory (1928) in which his character, Marine Sergeant Quirk carries on a highly-charged adversarial relationship with Captain Flagg, as played by Victor McLaglen. The success of the silent film led to three talkie sequels. Lowe played leading man roles until his late forties and continued as a character actor until age 70m, in 1960, when Heller in Pink Tights was his final film.

Silent Films

Lowe began his acting career on Broadway in his mid twenties. While active on the Broadway stage he began his film career making films in New York and New Jersey for a variety of producers including Hobart Bosworth Productions, Goldwyn Pictures, Thomas Ince, and Rolfe Photoplays. Most of these early films are lost. Eyes of Youth (1919) starring Clara Kimball Young, and The Devil (1921), the movie debut of George Arliss, are extant. In 1922, Lowe played detective Nick Carter is a series of two reel shorts. Before he joined Fox Pictures in 1923, Lowe appeared in The White Flower, a Paramount production filmed in Hawaii and directed by Julia Crawford Ivers, one of the final women directors.

From 1923 to 1935, Lowe starred in 41 features at Fox Pictures. His first Fox film, Silent Command (1923), which survives, included Bela Lugosi in his American debut. His future wife, Lilian Tashman, was in Ports of Call (1924). In his five films in 1925, his co-stars included Alma Rubens, Carole Lombard, and Dolores Costello.

What Price Glory

In 1926, Lowe starred in What Price Glory, his best known and most successful film. As 1st Sergeant Quirt of the Marine Corps, Lowe competed with Victor McLaglen's Captain Flagg for the affections of girls in China and the Philippines. In France during WWI, the men clash over the attentions of the beautiful hostess Charmaine, played by Dolores Del Rio. Their comedic arguments are replaced by dramatic action as Flagg and Quirt participate with their fellow Marines in the battle of Belleau Wood. This June 1918 battle was the first major engagement of the US Army in World War I. The battle is considered a defining moment in Marine Corp history.

The 12 reel film, directed by Raoul Walsh, had sound effects and a musical score. "Charmaine", the sentimental love song written for the film by Ernö Rapée and Lew Pollack, was a hit and was still being recorded into the fifties and sixties.

The film was based on a highly successful 1924 play of the same name by Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings. The play was well known for the profanity of the dialogue. Although there is no profanity in the inter-titles of the film, in the scenes in which Quirt and Flagg clash, the actors utilized the utterances of the stage to good visual, if not auditory, effect.

For the role, Lowe's hair was cut to form required of a marine. To maintain authenticity, his hair was recut to regulation for the time periods of the marines in China, the Philippines and France.

Talking Films

In 1928-29, silents were giving way to talking pictures. Lowe, who had an excellent voice and quickly mastered the proper techniques for speaking on film, moved smoothly from staring parts in silents to starring roles in the early talkies.

His first talkie In Old Arizona (1928) was the first picture to have talking sequences filmed outdoors. Although slow and stilted by later standards, the film was a popular hit at the time. Directors Irving Cummings and Raoul Walsh (the director of What Price Glory) cast Lowe as a handsome, woman-pleasing, self confident military officer, Sergeant Mickey Dune, who is attempting to capture the Cisco Kid (Warner Baxter). The Kid, a good natured Mexican bandit, crosses the border to carry out his robberies. Dune has charmed the Kid's supposed sweetheart and uses her in his plan to capture the Kid. The Kid learns of her duplicity and gains his revenge on both of them.

Warner Baxter won an Academy Award as Best Actor for his role. Talkies were new and Warner's ineffective Mexican accent was accepted by the audience (similar accents were heard in many films through the thirties). Lowe roughed up his speech pattern to represent the western soldier.

In a sequel, The Cisco Kid (1931), also directed by Irving Cummings, Lowe repeats his Sergeant Mickey Dune role. Dune, determined to capture or kill the Kid, uses another pretty woman as bait.

In both of these films, The Cisco Kid is an unreformed bandit who escapes the law. At the conclusion, it is understood that The Kid has escaped and will continue his banditry. The successful escape of an outlaw marks these films as coming from the pre-Code era of talkies. After the strictures of the Motion Picture Production Code were enforced, beginning in mid 1934, a guilty person was not permitted to escape justice.

Lowe made few Westerns. Lowe's devious Sergeant Dune is not a typical film westerner, he is more like a misplaced urbanite impersonating a westerner. Unsuited to westerns, Lowe did not appear in another western until the end of his career.

Lowe's persona was well suited to the character of Sergeant Quirt who he played in three talkie sequels to What Price Glory: The Cock-Eyed World (1929), Women of All Nations (1931), and Hot Pepper (1933). What Price Glory on the stage was known for the salty language used by its protagonists. This language was only hinted at in the silent film, although lip readers could quote the four letter words that the filmic Quirt and Flagg shouted at each other. The talkie sequels, made before the Motion Picture Production Code was enforced, featured salty dialogue, (dirty songs, racist remarks, references to social diseases) and risqué events (horizontal love scene, heroine in minimal underwear).

In Born Reckless (1930), one of the first talkies directed by John Ford, Louis Beretti, Lowe's character, grows up in the tenements and begins life as a street tough and gangster. Assigned to the Army by a lenient judge, he performs well. Upon return to civilian life, Beretti resumes his criminal career. The woman he loves marries a respectable man, (played by Randolph Scott at the beginning of his career). Beretti sacrifices himself to protect her.

Lowe's most notable film of the thirties is Dinner at Eight (1933). He plays a married physician who is having an affair with Jean Harlow, the dazzling wife of cutthroat businessman Wallace Berry. To protect his marriage, Lowe wants to end the affair, but Harlow is reluctant. The tart dialogue exchanged by Harlow and Berry is the highlight of the film.

During his starring career in the thirties and early forties, Lowe was frequently cast as a detective. He was a dashing Phil Vance in The Garden Murder Case (1936), one of several actors who played the role, first played by William Powell in 1929. Lowe played a detective in Bombay Man (1934), Great Hotel Murder (1935), Mr Dynamite (1935), and Murder on Diamond Row (1937). Lowe's character in these films is energetic, attractive, and full of confidence. A fun example is Seven Sinners (aka Doomed Cargo, 1936), made during a sojourn in England. Detective John Harwood cooperates with insurance investigator Caryl Fenton (Constance Cummings) to catch a murderer who wrecks trains to cover his crimes. In an amusing opening, Harwood is at the carnival at Nice and first appears wearing a devil's costume, the tail of which becomes stuck in his hotel room door.

Lowe also played investigative newspaper reporters. The films include The Girl on the Front Page (1936), Espionage (1937), Newsboy's Home (1938). Lowe's TV series, Front Page Detective (1951-1953), combines newspaper work with detection.

In the 1940's, an aging Lowe moved into supporting roles. His best films of this period include Dangerous Blonds (1943) a comic murder mystery and Dillinger (1945) a well-paced crime thriller starring menacing Lawrence Tierney as the gangster and Lowe as his henchman.

Lowe final roles were mostly minor parts in major productions. He plays a neighbor to Gary Cooper in Good Sam (1948). In Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Lowe plays the chief engineer of the SS Henrietta. In his scene in the engine room everything combustible on the ship is being burned. He shares this scene with fellow, older American actors Jack Oakie, Andy Devine, and Victor McLaglen, his co-star in the What Price Glory films. Lowe appeared in two films directed by John Ford, The Wings of Eagles (1957) starring John Wayne and an uncredited appearance in The Last Hurrah (1958), starring Spencer Tracy. In his final film, Heller In Pink Tights (1960) starring Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn, directed by George Cukor, Lowe plays a Shakespearean ham actor with a small theatrical troupe that is touring the old west.

Personal Life

Lowe was born in San Jose, California on March 3, 1890 and died in Woodland Hills, California on April 2, 1971 aged 81. One of 13 children, his mother named him for Edmund Dantes, the hero of Alexander Dumont's The Count of Monte Cristo. His father was a lawyer and a judge.

Lowe attended the University of Santa Clara, graduating around 1910 and went on to receive a Master's Degree in Pedagogy, the study of the theory and practice of teaching. After a short career as an educator, Lowe left teaching for an acting career, first appearing with a stock company in Los Angeles.

By 1917, Lowe was in New York appearing on Broadway. He was in eight theatrical productions between 1917 and 1922, three between 1928 and 1931, and a final appearance in 1945. After 1922, he was mostly active in films.

Lowe began his film career with Fox Films in 1923 and appeared in 41 Fox Features from 1923 to 1935, mostly in top roles. During his 37 year film career, Lowe appeared in films made by all the major studios. His characterization of Sergeant Quirt in the Fox production of What Price Glory (1926) brought him lasting renown.

After divorcing his first wife, Esther Miller in May 1925, he married actress Lilian Tashman. Lilian, who had entered films in 1921, easily transitioned to talkies. She freelanced and appeared in mostly supporting roles. She was known on and off screen for her elegant wardrobe and sharp tongue. Lowe was widowed by her death from cancer in March 1934. He was married to costume designer Rita Kaufman from 1936 to their divorce in 1950.

Career Consideration

Edmund Lowe was a solid actor, better at lighter parts, lacking the depth for serious roles. He was probably not handsome enough to become a major star. A dashing leading man, he was smooth talking and suave, adventurous and energetic.