Officer O'Brien is a notable non-Western role during the sound era for William Boyd (1895-1972). Years before he became Hopalong Cassidy, the actor was a popular romantic leading man in features as diverse as Cecil B. DeMille's The Volga Boatman (1926) and D.W. Griffith's Lady of the Pavements (1929). His dramatic career was derailed when newspapers mistakenly ran a picture of him to report the arrest of another actor with the same name, William "Stage" Boyd in 1931. Let go from his studio contract, he struggled to find work until he was cast as Clarence E. Mulford's cowboy character in Hop-Along Cassidy (1935). Those interim years were not completely dismal for Boyd, however; he married his Officer O'Brien leading lady, Dorothy Sebastian, in December 1930. Director Tay Garnett would make several successful pictures in the following years, including China Seas (1935), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949). Also appearing in Officer O'Brien are silent comedian Clyde Cook and Russell Gleason, who played one of the doomed German soldiers that same year in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). Note: Due to the age and rarity of this film, some picture and sound anomalies exist.
DVD Details
>Rated: NR
>Runtime: 1 hours, 12 minutes
>Video: 0
>Encoding: Region 1(US & Canada)
>Originally Released: 1/1/2025
>Label: Alpha Video
Starring: William Boyd