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References to Masonry
in Films and Television

by Norrnan G. Lincoln, MPS

Considering the large numbers of Ma-
sons among the influential members of
the film industry, it is difficult to find
references to Masonry among the films
and television programs they have pro-
duced. This article will list a number of
films where Masonry is mentioned.

Across the Pacific

(1942, Warner Brothers).

Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sid-
ney Greenstreet and Keye Luke. Aboard
a ship, Greenstreet is discussing jujitsu
with Bogart. He says that, like Freema-
sonry, it has its secrets. Neither producer
Jerry Wald nor director John Huston
was a Mason. The screenplay was by
Richard Macauley, from a story by Rob-
ert Carson.

The Andy Griffith Show

(CBSTelevision, 1960-68).

The lodge is sometimes mentioned in
this series. Ervin F. Moore, a cousin of
Andy Griffith, is a member of Renfro
Lodge No. 691, Mount Airy, North Car-
olina. Bert Mustin (1882- 1977), who
was a member of Loyalty Lodge No. 696
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, played the
part of Jud Crowley. None of the other
actors are Masons.

Are You a Mason?

(Famous Players, 1915).

John Barrymore and Harold Lock-
wood. For many years a man tells his
wife he is spending Saturday night at the
lodge, while he is really out on the town.
The wife urges her son- in-law to join the
Masons. Both pretend to be Masons and
the film ends with a mock initiation cer-
emony. Maurice Barrymore, the father
ofJohn, Lionel, and Ethel was a member
of Drury Lane Lodge No. 2127 in Lon-
don, but neither John nor Lionel was a
Mason.

Are You a Mason
(England, 1934).

Sonnie Hale and J. Robertson Hare.
Same story, directed by Henry Edwards.
No Masonic connections known.

BarnyardLodgeNa 1

(Terrytoon, June 1928).

Paul Terry was one of several cartoon
makers who were Masons, although I
don't know his lodge, nor have I been
able to trace this cartoon. It was men-
tioned in an interview in a Masonic mag-
azine, Masonic R~view, of New York.
Colorado Territory

(Warner Brothers, 1949).

Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayor, Doro-
thy Malone, Henry Hull and John
Archer. McCrea escapes from prison and
plans a bank robbery. The "inside

man," played by Morris Ankrum, says
he is a good Mason and has never done
anything wrong before. The plot is bor-
rowed from High Sierra. None of the
actors were Masons.

Every Man Needs One
(ABC TV, 1972).

Connie Stevens, Ken Berry and Gail
Fisher. Berry, an architect, hires
Women's Libber Stevens, who runs
away. Pursuing her, he knocks on a hotel
room door. When it opens he asks, "Are
you the Viking?" Stephen Franken an-
swers, "I'm a Shriner! " An Aaron Spell-
ing production directed by Jerry Paris.
No Masons involved.

Girl Crazy

(MGM,1943).

Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. A
nice musical with great Gershwin songs:
" I Got Rhythm, " " Embraceable You, "
and "But Not for Me." The Iyrics of
"Could You Use. Me" contain the
phrase, " I ' m N~ ~Iason, Elk, or Wood-
man. " Ira Gershwin was not a Mason.
Nobody in the film was a Mason.

The Godfather Part 111
(Paramount, 1990).

Al Pacino, Diane Keeton and Talia
Shire. Contains some allusions to the P-2
incident in Italy, but they are incidental
to the story.

Help! (United Artists, 1965).

Ringo Starr (of the Beatles) finds a ring
sent to him by a fan. He shows it to the
doorman at a restaurant, who asks if it is
Masonic. No one involved is a Mason as
far as I know.

How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying
(UnitedArtists, 1967).

Robert Morse, Rudy Vallee and Mi-
chele Lee. Frank Loesser's musical con-
tains a song, "Brotherhood of Man,"
which begins, "Now You May Join the
Elks, my friend, and I May Join the
Shriners. " Frank Loesser was not a
Mason.

Jack the Ripper
(England, 1988).

Michael Caine, Armand Assante,
Susan George and Jane Seymour. At-
tempts to perpetuate the Stephen Knight
myth that Sir William Gull was the mur-
derer and that Sir Charles Warren
helped protect him because they were
fellow-Masons. Guaranteed to annoy
any Mason.

Kim (MGM,1950).

Errol Flynn, Dean Stockwell and Paul
Lukas.

Kim (CBS TV, 1 984).

Peter O'Toole, Bryan Brown and Ravi
Sheth. Kipling's works contain more
Masonic allusions than any other great
writer's. Kim says a lot about brother-
hood while telling a rousing story of in-
trigue. Neither of these versions can be
said to be definitive.

Laverne andShirley
(ABCTV, 1976-83).

Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams.
A joke from one episode: " Does she look
like Shirley Temple?" "No, a Masonic
Temple. "

M. *A. *S. *H.
(CBSTV, 1972-83).

Donald Penobscott, the husband of
MajorMargaret"Hot-Lips" Houlihan,
is said to wear a Masonic pinkie ring.
There appear to be no other Masonic
references in this high-ranking series.

The Maltese Falcon

(Warner Brothers, 1941).

Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sid-
ney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. The
first movie directed by John Huston.
The characters are searching for a gold-
jewelled falcon once owned by the
Knights of Malta. Greenstreet gives a
history of the order. Dashiel Hammett's
story was first filmed in 1931. Producer
Hal B. Wallis was a member of Prudence
Lodge 958, Chicago.

The Man Who Would Be King
. (Columbia, 1 975).

Sean Connery and Michael Caine.
Loosely based on Kipling's short story
by writer-directorJohn Huston, this film
is rather unsatisfying, as if nobody knew
quite what they were trying to prove.
Christopher Plummer as Kipling is quite
good, but Caine is not my idea of what a
Mason should be, nor for that matter, is
Connery. But it does have dialogue
which catches one's attention and spec-
tacular scenery. Read the story.

The Molly McGuires
(Paramount, 1 969).

Richard Harris and Sean Connery.
Based on a true incident in 1875 about a
Pinkerton detective who became a mem-
ber of a secret society of miners. Brother
Arthur Conan Doyle used the plot for his
novel, The Valley of Fear. The film is less
interesting.

MasonicMysteries(England, 1990).
An episode in the Inspector Morse Se-
ries. John Thaw and Kevin Whatley. At
the rehearsal of a performance of
Mozart's The Magic Flute, Inspector
Morse's friend is killed and he is sus-
pected of the murder. Several of the po-
lice are said to be Masons and one even
says he will propose Morse as a member.
No doubt the author had read The
Brotherhood. There is no evidence to
indicate that Masonic membership will
help one advance in the English police.

Murder by Decree (AVCO, 1979).

Christopher Plummer, James Mason,
Donald Sutherland, Anthony Quayle,
John Gielgud, David Hemmings, Susan
Clark and Genevieve Bujold. The sec-

The Philalethes, April 1994
ond effort to have Sherlock Holmes solve
the murders of Jack the Ripper (the first
was A Study in Terror, 1965). Quayle
portrays Sir Charles Warren. The setting
in a supposed lodge room is unrealistic.
It has been established beyond question
that Prince Albert Edward (1864-1892),
a member of Royal Alpha Lodge No. 1 1 6,
had nothing to do with the events in
Whitechapel in 1888. It is a poorly writ-
ten confusion of fact and fiction. Perhaps
some day somebody will have the integ-
rity to film a straight biography of Gen-
eral Warren. His life was certainly filled
with adventure.

Murder She Wrote
(CBS TV,1984 -).

Angela Lansbury. Jessica Fletcher's
late husband was a Mason and one of his
friends was a murderer in this series.
Arthur Hill played the Masonic mur-
derer.

Outback (Australia, 1 970).

Gary Bond, Donald Pleasance and
Chips Rafferty. One of the characters is
said to be a Mason. Chips Rafferty
(1909-71) was a Mason, but I don't have
his lodge membership. Not a nice pic-
ture.

The Rockford Files
(NBC TV,1974-80).
James Garner and Noah Beery, Jr. Jo-

seph "Rocky" RockfordisaMason, and
his sonJim has to go down to the temple
to pick him up. In one episode, an em-
bezzler hired Jim to find his missing
bookkeeper. The crook says he is a
ThirtySecond Degree Mason. Appar-
ently the producer and writer (Roy Hug-
gins and Stephen J. Cannell) couldn't
make up their minds whether the Ma-
sons were the good guys or the bad guys.

Secrets(England, 1984).

Anna CampbellJones and Helen Lind-
sey. I saw a still from this film in which
some girls were wearing Masonic
aprons. Maybe they were members of an
English women's lodge.

The Seduction of Joe Tynan.
(Universal,1979).

Alan Alda, Barbara Harris, Meryl
Street, Melvin Douglas and Rip Torn. A
politician faces a Washington dilemma.
He mentions a Shriner's Convention.

Sleeping with me Enemy (1991).

A great thriller with the beautiful Julia
Roberts has a brief clip of a Shrine pa-
rade. Somewhere in Iowa?

SonsoftheDesert(MGM, 1934).

Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Char-
ley Chase. Stan and Ollie go to a frater-
nal convention while their wives think
they are lost at sea until they show up on
a newsreel. Produced by Hal Roach.
One of the best of the Stan and Ollie films
for Masons. Hardy (1892-1957) be-
longed to Solomon Lodge No. 20 (Flor-
ida), andCharlieChase(1893-1940)was
a member of Hollywood No. 355.

True Grit (Paramount, 1 969).

John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim
Darby and Strother Martin. Mattie Ross
hires Rooster Cogburn to track down her
father's murderers. Frank Ross was a
Mason, and Mattie tells her servant to
have him buried in a Mason's apron.
Wayne finally won an Oscar for this role.
He was a Senior DeMolay and was
raised in Marion McDaniel Lodge No.
56, Tucson, Arizona.

Vanina Vanini(ltaly, 1961).

Directed by Roberto Rossellini, this
film is set in the period of risorgimento
when the Catholic Church was denounc-
ing Masons, and Italians were seeking to
unite as a nation. The role played by
Masons is one of the themes of this study.

Vera Cruz. (United Artists, 1954).

Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster and
Cesar Romero. A fictitious account of
Maximilian's Mexico. On entering the
Emperor's palace, Jack Elam exclaims,
"Man, I.never seen a lodge hall like
this!" Ernest Borgnine, as a Thirty-
Third Degree Mason, is in the cast.
