Bruce GordonFilmography

Elephant Boy

Actors: Sabu, Walter Hudd, Allan Jeayes, W.E. Holloway, Bruce Gordon

Synopsis: The unusual amalgam of documentary maven Robert Flaherty and pure-entertainment producer Zoltan Korda resulted in the 1937 money-spinner Elephant Boy. In his screen debut, eleven-year-old Indian-born Sabu plays the title character, a mahout named Toomai. When his father is killed by a tiger Read More

Phantom Ship

Actors: Bela Lugosi, Shirley Grey, Arthur Margetson, Edmund Willard, George Mozart

Synopsis: This chiller speculates upon a haunting real-life mystery that occurred off the English coast on December 5, 1872 where the American ship Marie Celeste was found drifting with her sails set at half-mast with absolutely no one on board. According to the film, the crewmen were murdered by Read More

Guest of Honor

The Lady from the Sea

Synopsis: In this romance, a sailor saves a drowning Frenchwoman and falls in love forgetting all about his landlocked girlfriend. Fortunately, he soon comes to his senses and is reunited with the one who really loves him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Anybody Here Seen Kelly?

Partners in Crime

Actors: Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, Mary Brian, William Powell, Jack Luden

Synopsis: Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton team up again in this silent comedy, in which they (respectively) play Mike Doolan, a half-bright gumshoe, and Scoop McGee, his equally dim-witted journalist pal. While on the trail of a group of gangsters, Doolan and McGee unwittingly fall in with a group of Read More

Desert Dust

Actors: Ted Wells, Lotus Thompson, Bruce Gordon

Synopsis: German-born William Wyler began his long, eventful directorial career helming Fred Gilman Western 2-reelers at Universal. Graduating to feature Westerns, Wyler directed both Fred Humes and Ted Wells. Desert Dust was the second of three Wells Westerns for Wyler, a breezy oater about a reform-school Read More

The Sonora Kid

Actors: Tom Tyler, Peggy Montgomery, Billie Bennett, Mark Hamilton, Jack Richardson

Synopsis: Tall, strapping Tom Tyler was poverty-row studioFBO's final silent western hero. A better actor than most of his contemporaries, Tyler was awarded above-average production values, solid scripts and a fine sidekick in young Frankie Darro. In this fine little western, rancher's daughter Peggy Montgomery Read More

The Outlaw Dog

Synopsis: The Outlaw Dog stars Ranger, one of the better Rin-Tin-Tin rivals, in the title role. When his master is attacked and left speechless, Ranger is held responsible. On the lam from the Law, the canine hero links up with telegrapher Bill Brady (Rex Lease) and Bill's girlfriend Helen Meadows (Helen Foster Read More

Poor Nut

Actors: Jack Mulhall, Charlie Murray, Jean Arthur, Jane Winton, Glenn Tryon

Synopsis: The Poor Nut was based on a stage comedy by the father-and-son team of J. C. and Elliot Nugent. Jack Mulhall assumes the role played by Elliot Nugent on Broadway, that of wimpish college student John Miller. Suffering from an inferiority complex, Miller worships beauty-contest winner Julia (Jane Winton Read More

Hands Off

Actors: Fred Humes, Marian Nixon, Nelson McDowell, Bruce Gordon

Synopsis: The founder of Universal, "Uncle" Carl Laemmle, had, as the writer Ogden Nash once pointed out, "quite a big faemmle." Laemmle was a great believer in nepotism and countless members of the Laemmle clan worked at one time or another for the studio. Nephews Edward and Ernest Laemmle directed routine Read More

Isle of Sunken Gold

Synopsis: Pioneering screen actress Anita Stewart, who had starred in Vitagraph's hugely successful serial The Goddess back in 1915, attempted to jump-start a waning career with yet another chapterplay, Mascot Pictures' low-budget The Isle of Sunken Gold. But producer Nat Levine famously caught them on Read More

Blazing Days

Actors: Fred Humes, Ena Gregory

Synopsis: William Wyler, a distant relative of Universal's founder Carl Laemmle, directed this routine western about a cowboy, "Smilin'" Sam (Fred Humes), who mistakes lovely Milly (Ena Gregory) and her brother (Churchill Ross) for a couple of outlaws. Everything is quickly sorted out, however, and Humes Read More

The Unknown Cavalier

Actors: Ken Maynard, Kathleen Collins, T. Roy Barnes, James Mason, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: One of Ken Maynard's very best silent westerns, The Unknown Cavalier was filmed on locations in Death Valley, California. Maynard plays Tom Drury, a cowboy whose quick thinking stops a notorious outlaw, "The Hawk," from further misdeeds. The villain, as it turns out, is none other than Henry Suggs Read More

Born to the West

Actors: Jack Holt, Margaret Morris, Raymond Hatton, Arlette Marchal, George Siegmann

Synopsis: Another entry in Paramount's long-running "Zane Grey" series, Born to the West represented the first directorial effort of John Waters. The story concerns the lifelong rivalry between two men over the love of one woman. Most of the action takes place in Nevada during the Gold Rush, where trail Read More

Bucking the Truth

Actors: Brinsley Shaw, Bruce Gordon, Charles "Slim" Whitaker, Ione Reed, Pete Morrison

Synopsis: Versatile silent screen comedian Milburn Morante directed this average Universal western starring Colorado-born Pete Morrison. Perhaps the studio's most authentic cowboy performer, Morrison never gained the popularity of Universal's top western hero, Hoot Gibson or the devoted following of Jack Hoxie Read More

Ahead of the Law

Actors: Josephine Hill

Synopsis: Minor-league silent cowboy Bruce Gordon starred in this miniscule western, produced by poverty row regular Barney A Goodman, as a Texas Ranger cleaning up a corrupt frontier town by posing as a wealthy businessman. A South African by birth, the dark-haired Gordon had earlier appeared twice Read More

Escape

Actors: Pete Morrison, Barbara Starr, Frank Norcross, Bruce Gordon, Elmer Dewey

Synopsis: Based on an original story by the prolific L. V. Jefferson, this minor silent Western featured Colorado cowboy Pete Morrison as a ranch hand falsely accused of robbing the stage. With the assistance of his girlfriend, Barbara Starr, Morrison goes in search of the true culprit, the slick Bruce Gordon Read More

The Dude Cowboy

Synopsis: Independent producer Jesse J. Goldburg (the initial "J" stood for "Jesse!") released this minor offering starring second-echelon cowboy Bob Custer. More a comedy of errors than a true red-blooded western melodrama, The Dude Cowboy is the tale of a rancher (Custer) who hires himself out as a Read More

The Vanishing American

Actors: Richard Dix, Lois Wilson, Noah Beery, Sr., Malcolm McGregor, Charles Stevens

Synopsis: The Paramount team of Richard Dix and Lois Wilson starred in this top-notch silent western in which a Native American is the protagonist. The early silent era devoted many films to the depiction of American Indians, but that trend had not carried over into the screen's third decade, where Indians Read More

Gold and the Girl

Synopsis: The Fox company, who championed Buck Jones as Western star Tom Mix's possible heir, began cutting back a bit with Gold and the Girl. Jones was popular enough, but by 1925, there was a glut on the market due to scores of cheaply made independent Westerns. This time around, Jones plays Dan Prentiss Read More

Don X

Synopsis: Cattlemen's Association agent Frank Blair (Bruce Gordon) disguises himself as Don X, a wealthy Mexican beef baron, in order to infiltrate a gang of cattle rustlers. As it turns out, the leader of the gang is one Perez Blake (Boris Bullock), an outwardly law-abiding rancher. The dark-haired Gordon Read More

Brand of Cowardice

Actors: Carmelita Geraghty, Bruce Gordon, Cuyler Supplee, Harry Lonsdale

Synopsis: South African-born leading man Bruce Gordon stars in this pedestrian silent western about a marshal going undercover as a bandit in order to flush out the leader of a notorious gang of crooks smuggling diamonds across the Mexican border. The marshal almost gives up the masquerade when he falls for Read More

Smooth As Satin

Actors: Evelyn Brent, Bruce Gordon, Fred Kelsey, Fred Esmelton, Mabel Van Buren

Synopsis: Once again, Evelyn Brent plays a girl crook who eventually reforms in this entertaining melodrama, in which nearly every character is a crook. Gertie Jones (Brent) is posing as a maid solely to get her hands on the valuables of a wealthy dowager. Just as she has opened the safe, Jimmy Hartigan Read More

The Fortieth Door

Synopsis: Old reliables such as director George B. Seitz, writer Frank Leon Smith, and cameraman Vernon Walker made this Allene Ray serial a box-office winner for its producer, former cattle rancher C.W. Patton. Ray played Aimee, a young girl betrothed to a rascal, Hamid Bey (Frank Lackteen). An American Read More

Western Luck

Actors: Charles "Buck" Jones

Synopsis: A below-average Buck Jones oater, Western Luck trotted out the old plot about brothers separated at birth who meet on opposite sides of the fence, so to speak. One becomes a rancher, the other grows up on the East coast. The Easterner tries to foreclose on his brother's property, which Read More

Robes of Sin

Actors: Sylvia Breamer, Jack Mower, Bruce Gordon

Synopsis: The "Golden Age" of silent movies had its share of cheap potboilers, as witness Robes of Sin. Sylvia Breamer plays Ruth Rogens, the wife of detective John Rogens (Jack Mower). Bored by marriages, Ruth begins keeping time with bootlegger Cyler Bryson (Bruce Gordon). This puts John in quite a Read More

Tainted Money

Actors: Eva Novak, William Fairbanks, Carl Stockdale, Bruce Gordon, Edwards Davis

Synopsis: Rival lumber barons resort to blackmail and treachery to further their businesses in this Northwoods drama. John J. Carlton (Edward Davis) uses a forged check written by his rival's foreman to extract inside information about his competition. John's son Carlton (William Fairbanks) falls in love Read More

Judgment of the Storm

Actors: Claire McDowell, Lucille Ricksen, George Hackathorne, Bruce Gordon, Lloyd Hughes

Synopsis: The Palmer School of Photoplay Writing decided to try its hand at film production, and this drama was its first release. John Trevor (Lloyd Hughes) is shocked when he discovers that his mother (Myrtle Stedman) has been running a gambling den to put him through college. His sweetheart, Mary Heath Read More

The 40th Door

Actors: David Dunbar, Anna May Wong, Bruce Gordon, Allene Ray

Synopsis: Allene Ray and Bruce Gordon starred in this low-budget action melodrama from producer C. W. Patton, a former cattle rancher. Set "somewhere in Arabia," the rough-and-tumble story featured Whitehorse as an evil sheik attempting to prevent a group of British Egyptologists from discovering an ancient Read More

Fatal Mistake

Actors: William Fairbanks, Eva Novak, Wilfred Lucas, Dot Farley, Bruce Gordon

Synopsis: William Fairbanks and Eva Novak star in this implausible melodrama about a cub reporter eager to cover a society scandal. Jack Darwin convinces his editor he can secure a photo of the elusive socialite Helen Van Dyke. He snaps the photo of a woman -- who turns out to be Helen's maid -- in one of Read More

Let's Go!

Actors: Richard Talmadge, Eileen Percy, George Nichols, Tully Marshall, Bruce Gordon

Synopsis: Silent screen stunt-man Richard Talmadge also produced this fine action melodrama, one of the few of his starring films to be extant. The former acrobat and stunt double for Douglas Fairbanks plays Barry Macklin, the supposedly worthless son of a cement factory owner (John Steppling). Assigned to Read More

Kentucky Days

Synopsis: Veteran stage and screen actor Dustin Farnum starred in this romantic melodrama about a prospector who returns to find his wife in the arms of a lustful cousin. Farnum kills the usurper in a duel, burns his property to the ground, and frees his slaves before returning West, the repentant wife Read More

The Love Gambler

Synopsis: Drifter Dick Manners (John Gilbert) arrives at a ranch owned by Colonel Angus McClelland (James Gordon). When he wagers that he will be able to ride a wild bronco and kiss the ranchman's haughty daughter, Jean (Carmel Myers) -- and wins -- he lands a job there. But Manners and Jean really fall in Read More

Bring Him in

Synopsis: Earle Williams, a major star of the 1910s, both co-directed (with Robert Ensminger) and played the leading role in this silent Northwest melodrama from Vitagraph. Williams starred as Dr. John Hood, whose nightmare of killing gambler Canby (Ernest Van Pelt) seems to have come horribly true when he Read More

A Private Scandal

Actors: May McAvoy, Bruce Gordon, Ralph Lewis, Lloyd Whitlock, Gladys Fox

Synopsis: Philip and Carol Lawton (Ralph Lewis and Kathlyn Williams) adopt Jeanne Millette, a French war orphan (May McAvoy). Her loyalty to the Lawtons, and to their little daughter, Betty (Gladys Fox), is unshakable; a romance with Jerry Hayes, who works for Lawton as a trainer (Bruce Gordon), should make Read More

Fate's Plaything

Synopsis: Fate's Plaything was based on the C. F. Harding novel Oranges and Lemons. Filmed on location in Holland, this is story of a woman with a fickle husband. Showing his true colors when their child falls ill, hubby abandons the wife, leaving her destitute. But fear not, the woman's True Love will save Read More

Forbidden Valley

Synopsis: A Kentucky feud between the Mitchells and the Lees has wiped out all the Lees except for old Ben (Charles Kent) and his granddaughter Morning Glory (May McAvoy), and all the Mitchells except for one, who was sent away from the mountains so he would never know his heritage. Surveyor Jack Winslow Read More

After Many Days

Synopsis: After Many Days was no better nor worse than any other British film of its period. The plot concerns a burglar who seduces an aspiring model. When the girl has a baby, the burglar intimates that his own brother was responsible. Though innocent, the brother does "the right thing" by the girl. In Read More

All Men Are Liars

Synopsis: Bruce Gordon plays the son of a London missionary in All Men are Liars. Forced into marrage, Gordon soon discovers that his bride, Alice Russon, is a thoroughly selfish creature. No good can come of this, and no good does. The men may be liars, as the title indicates, but women don't come off too Read More

Democracy

Synopsis: Made during World War I, the British Democracy is not, as might be expected, a "Kill the Kaiser" tirade. Rather, it is a sensitive study of England's ingrained class system. A snooty aristocrat (Frank Dane) seduces a low-born girl (Alice Russon), knowing full well that he'll never be forced to Read More