Harry Davenport

[7] In 1880’s Nevada, news spreads of the murder of a local cattle farmer, inciting a few dozen townspeople to form a posse hellbent on lynching those responsible for the crime. Based on the book by Walter Van Tilburg Clark and directed by the always-thoughtful William Wellman (Wings, Battleground), The Ox-Bow Incident is a relatively simple, straight-forward meditation on mob mentality and vigilante justice. When …

[6] Charles Laughton’s performance as Quasimodo is the main reason to see this movie. Laughton gives the deformed bell ringer moments of quiet torment as well as unbridled joy, and without ever going over the top – a remarkable feat that should have earned him an Oscar nomination. I also liked Cedric Hardwicke as the malevolent Frollo and Maureen O’Hara (in her screen debut) as …