THE UNOFFICIAL BARTON MacLANE HOMEPAGE

BART'S BEST MOVIES BART'S TOP BILLINGS SOME PICTURES OF BART
THE TORCHY BLAINE MOVIES BART WITH PERRY MASON BART'S MOVIE LIST
THE BARTON MACLANE TREASURY OTHER BARTON MACLANE
INFORMATION AND CITATIONS		 TO CONTACT ME (Bruce Bales)
Last changed 6/14/2001 - Minor corrections, update movie list.

Barton MacLane is best known for his "tough-guy" roles in movies of the thirties and forties, performing mostly in crime dramas and westerns. Younger viewers would recognize him as General Martin Peterson in the "I Dream of Jeannie" television series in the late sixties or Marshall Frank Caine in "The Outlaws" series of the early sixties.

BARTON AS GEN PETERSONBarton MacLane was born on Christmas day, 1902 in Columbia, South Carolina. He died on New Years Day in 1969 in Santa Monica, California. We had previously said he died of cancer, but learned lately that while hospitalized for pneumonia, he had two massive strokes and died.

We know Barton was in over 150 films, having the lead (listed first or second in the credits) in at least 30. A list of these is at Top billing

Added 6/2/01, after receiving the following from Bart's granddaughter: 

     Dear Bruce....
     My daughter found your site, and I'm amazed and delighted to see 
     your indepth work about the grand old "heavy", Barton MacLane.  
     Barton MacLane was my grandfather. His wife, the actress Charlotte 
     Wynters, was my very dearest friend., as well as grandmother.. I grew up on the Double
     Rainbow Ranch in Madera County, Ca. where Barton bought a 2,000 acre ranch about 1940.
     His step-daughter, my mother, Shirley, met my dad, a young cowboy, on one of her summer
     visits from LA,. The love of theatre and film drew me to LA, and as a child I had opportunities
     to go to studio lots while Barton worked. I visited Paramount while THE OUTLAWS was
     being shot... I would love to correspond with you. I may have information that would be of
     interest to your site...perhaps personal things, as well as professional. LOTS of pictures. 

     Barton continued to run a working cattle ranch until his death....and his widow kept the ranch
     until her death in 1991 at the age of 91. Barton's death came after months of illness. He had a
     blockage in the intestines... he was hospitalized in Madera....got out, and immediately went
     back to work on JEANNIE. Soon after her developed pnemonia and was hospitalized at St,
     John's in Santa Monica. I spoke to him Dec.28, 1968... he was doing better, on
     antibiotics..hoped to go home for NewYears.. Charlotte walked with him to the elevator New
     Year's Eve. He kissed her goodnight..He would be coming home in a day or two. She called
     me that night to let me know how well he was doing. Early the next morning I got the call that
     he had had two massive strokes while in the hospital and died. I immediately flew to LA, and
     helped my grandmother. Her good friend Rosalind Russell made all arrangements for the house
     after the service. Pat Obrien was there. I could go on and on...Even though I was 18 when he
     died, I was fortunate to have had a close relationship with him. I have original manuscripts of
     several plays that he wrote, and a novel called DOUBLE RAINBOW, about his life on the
     ranch which he loved, tons of pictures, and information about his family. He has a sister living in
     the Palm Springs area. If I may be of any help to you in your research, please contact me.

MacLane was a star athlete at Wesleyan University where he was captain of the 1923-24 basketball team and on the 1924 football team, ran back a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. This feat was instrumental in winning him his first movie role in a silent film, "The Quarterback." His interest was aroused, starting him on his movie career. He played bit parts in films such as the 1929 Marx Brothers' "The Cocoanuts," often cited as his first film. In 1932 he wrote and starred in a successful Broadway play called "Rendezvous," which resulted in a film contract with Warner Brothers.

Most of Barton's films were made for Warner Brothers. Many of the characters he played were villains or prison inmates, although he also played his share of cops. During the three years 1935, 36, 37, he was in 27 films, twelve in 1935 alone. He had to have been busy back then to average nine films per year. His last film was Arizona Bushwhacker, with Roy Rogers, Jr. in 1968.

In 1940 Barton bought a 2000 acre ranch in Madera County, California, which he called the Double Rainbow Ranch. Throughout the rest of his life, he tried to spend six months a year at the ranch. Even though he had a busy life in films and on television, he had many other interests. He was an avid golfer (even had a hole-in-one) wrote many plays, many of which were published, wrote a book (never published), played the piano, guitar, and violin and sang. His grand-daughter says he had a good singing voice. One of the plays he wrote (Black John) made it to the New York stage.

We solicit information on Barton MacLane. If you have anything of interest relative to Bart, or even just an interest in him, please e-mail me at bbales@cox.net (or use the e-mail button at the bottom).

Some other sites with information on BARTON MacLANE

TVGUIDE at TVGUIDE.COM used to list 137 of Barton's films, but they have cut back to only about 30.

Mr. Showbiz is another site with reviews of many Barton MacLane movies. Click on Mr. Showbiz (although this link doesn't always work).

One of the best sources of information on any movie is The Internet Movie Database They list most of Barton's movies.

Some great movies with Barton MacLane

Barton appeared in several top-rated films - Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Maltese Falcon and several very good films like "The Glenn Miller story," "Black Fury," "Pocket Full of Miracles," and "Let's Dance." Many of the films Barton worked in were grade B movies. Some of his movies, like "Nabonga" shot in 1944, were terrible, but he always played his parts well.

To see a few pictures of Barton in several of his movies, click on SOME PICTURES OF BART
COWBOY BARTON

Just the names of some of the movies Barton MacLane was in are interesting. He played a character named Barnum in a film called The Naked Gun in 1956, 32 years before Leslie Nielson starred in a film of the same name. He was in two films with the same name, "San Quentin," one in 1937 and one in 1946. Then there was "Murder in the Big House," 1936 and "Mutiny in the Big House," 1939. The best name for one of his movies is "Wine, Women, and Horses." 1937 in which he played a reformed (off-and-on) gambler.

MacLane was in two Perry Mason movies in 1935 as well as appearing in a number of episodes of the Perry Mason TV series 22 years later. He played Storm in number 8 of the Cheyenne TV series called "The Storm Rider," and was in several of the old "Gunsmoke" episodes, although I have never been able to catch one.

Barton showed up in many episodes of the "I Dream of Jeannie" series, playing General Martin Peterson, one of the Air Force officers usually in the background. He played Marshall Frank Caine in the series "The Outlaws."

With the help of the books we were able to find and by searching the Internet, we have compiled a list of 164 movies in which MacLane acted. We have captured 76 of these on tape. What a fun project! To see our list of the Barton's movies we have identified with information on his ranking in the credits and location of the movie in the Barton MacLane Treasury, click on Barton's Movie List. To see the reviews of the movies we have recorded, click on Barton MacLane Treasury.

The Internet Movie Database lists 128 Barton MacLane movies at: The IMDB Barton MacLane

BARTON MacLANE'S TOP BILLINGS

Maclane was listed first or second in the credits of the following movies. Of these, we have been able to view only 17.

THE TORCHY BLAINE MOVIES

GLENDA FARRELL The Torchy Blane movies were shot by Warner Brothers in 1935 to 1937 with Glenda Farrell playing the heroine, Torchy Blane, a reporter on a major newspaper with MacLane playing her boy friend, Lt. Steve McBride. BARTON

The Internet Daba Base (imdb.com) lists 174 of Barton's movie and TV appearances

GLENDA FARRELL

Here's a glamorous picture of Glenda.

EARLY PERRY MASON MOVIES AND LATER TV PERRY MASON EPISODES WITH BARTON MacLANE

Barton played in two Perry Mason movies in 1935, in which Warren Williams played Perry Mason. Mason was not as serious about his job as in the later films starring Raymond Burr and the movie was over before the criminal got to trial. In fact, these movies were more comedy than drama.

Twenty two years later, Barton acted with Burr in four or five episodes of the better known Perry Mason Television series. Four of these are listed below.

To contact me (Bruce Bales)