Charles SellonFilmography

The Casino Murder Case

Actors: Paul Lukas, Alison Skipworth, Donald Cook, Rosalind Russell, Arthur Byron

Synopsis: S. S. Van Dine's intelligent, insufferable amateur sleuth Philo Vance is the protagonist of The Casino Murder Case. Paul Lukas plays Vance, who is brought to the mansion of a wealthy, eccentric widow (Alison Skipworth) by a mysterious unsigned letter. Several murders are committed in the elderly Read More

One Hour Late

Actors: Joe Morrison, Helen Twelvetrees, Conrad Nagel, Arline Judge, Ray Walker

Synopsis: Radio baritone Joe Morrison was being groomed for stardom by Paramount when he was top-billed in One Hour Late. Morrison is cast as shipping clerk Eddie Blake, whose girlfriend Betty Dunn (Helen Twelvetrees) is secretary to big boss Stephen Barclay (Conrad Nagel). A trusting soul, Betty sees Read More

Diamond Jim

Actors: Edward Arnold, Jean Arthur, Binnie Barnes, Cesar Romero, Eric Blore

Synopsis: Screenwriter Preston Sturges never lets the facts get in the way of a good story in this colorful filmed biography of turn-of-the-century millionaire Diamond Jim Brady. The hearty Edward Arnold stars as Brady, who parlays a small-time railroad supply firm into a thriving financial empire. Once Read More

In Old Kentucky

Actors: Will Rogers, Dorothy Wilson, Russell Hardie, Charles Sellon, Louise Henry

Synopsis: Oklahoma's own Will Rogers stars in In Old Kentucky. The storyline is in the grand tradition of most films about the Bluegrass State: There's a long-standing family feud, a pair of star-crossed lovers, and a crucial horse race. Rogers cuts through the banality with his seemingly off-the-cuff Read More

It's a Small World

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Wendy Barrie, Raymond Walburn, Virginia Sale, Astrid Allwyn

Synopsis: It's a Small World was the latest in a long line of It Happened One Night clones, this time starring Spencer Tracy and Wendy Barrie as rough approximations of Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. It all begins when spoiled socialite Jane Dale (Barrie) and abrasive lawyer Bill Shevlin (Tracy) "meet Read More

Life Begins at 40

Actors: Will Rogers, Rochelle Hudson, Richard Cromwell, George Barbier, Jane Darwell

Synopsis: A best-selling nonfictional book of the 1920s provided the title for this Will Rogers vehicle. Rogers plays a small town newspaper editor who prints all the news that fits his own homespun view of the world. Against the wishes of the town higher-ups, Rogers tries to clear the name of Richard Cromwell Read More

Welcome Home

Actors: James Dunn, Arline Judge, Raymond Walburn, Rosina Lawrence, William Frawley

Synopsis: In this comedy, a con artist gets elected to the chamber of commerce in his home town. He then goes there with three fellow grifters who are not welcome until they pay off the bad bonds they sold the town. Fortunately, the protagonist wins a fortune at the track and pays the debt. Despite this Read More

Bright Eyes

Actors: Shirley Temple, James Dunn, Jane Darwell, Judith Allen, Lois Wilson

Synopsis: Despite stiff competition like Poor Little Rich Girl and Heidi, Bright Eyes is arguably the best of Shirley Temple's 1930s vehicles. The little curly-top is cast as Shirley Blake, daughter of Mary Blake (Lois Wilson), the widowed housemaid of snooty J. Wellington and Anita Smythe (Theodore Von Eltz Read More

Ready for Love

Actors: Ida Lupino, Richard Arlen, Marjorie Rambeau, Beulah Bondi

Synopsis: In this fluffy romance, a young woman fights against the narrow-minded residents of her small town. The trouble begins when a young woman flees her boarding school to stay with her retired aunt, a former actress, who try as she might, has never been welcomed into the snobbish community in which Read More

The Cat's Paw

Actors: Harold Lloyd, Una Merkel, George Barbier, Nat Pendleton, Grace Bradley

Synopsis: Harold Lloyd plays Ezekial Cobb, a missionary's son who has spent his entire life in China. Cobb is sent to his father's home church in California, where it is hoped he will find a wife. A true babe in the woods, Cobb is befriended by politician Jake Mayo (George Barbier). Mayo is a cog in a Read More

Private Scandal

Actors: ZaSu Pitts, Phillips Holmes, Mary Brian, Ned Sparks, Lew Cody

Synopsis: Usually consigned to the supporting cast, eccentric comic actress ZaSu Pitts was occasionally rewarded with a leading role. In Paramount's Private Scandal, Pitts is top-billed as Miss Coates, the fey secretary of hotshot young executive Cliff Barry (Philips Holmes). Accused of murdering his boss Read More

It's a Gift

Actors: W.C. Fields, Jean Rouverol, Julian Madison, Kathleen Howard, Baby Le Roy

Synopsis: W.C. Fields is in fine fettle as small-town grocer Harold Bissonette (pronounced Biss-o-NAY). Harold dreams of becoming a California orange farmer, but his gorgon wife (Kathleen Howard) will have none of it. After a grueling day at the store, during which his electric light stock is destroyed by a Read More

Elmer and Elsie

Actors: George Bancroft, Frances Fuller, Roscoe Karns, George Barbier, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: Elmer and Elsie was adapted from To the Ladies, a play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. Former movie tough guy George Bancroft is uncharacteristically cast as Elmer Beebe, mildly henpecked husband of frail but formidable Elsie Beebe (Frances Fuller, in the role originated on Broadway by Helen Hayes Read More

Golden Harvest

Actors: Richard Arlen, Chester Morris, Genevieve Tobin, Roscoe Ates, Julie Haydon

Synopsis: A play by Nina Wilcox Putnam was the source for the empire-building drama Golden Harvest. Chester Morris stars as ambitious grain trader Chris Martin, who through fair and foul means corners the wheat market and becomes a millionaire. Outgrowing his humble farm beginnings, Chris makes a bid for Read More

Baby Face

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook, Arthur Hohl, John Wayne

Synopsis: Baby Face is a good example of the kind of spitfire lead female characters that appeared in the cinema of pre-code Hollywood. Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck) works as a barmaid in her father's factory-town saloon where she learns to deal with the unwanted advances of male customers. When her father Read More

Employees' Entrance

Actors: Warren William, Loretta Young, Wallace Ford, Alice White, Albert Gran

Synopsis: Warren William plays a high-powered ambitious executive who unflinchingly steamrolled his way to the top without regard for the havoc he left in his wake. As the manager of a Macy-like department store, he constantly browbeats his flunkies into submission, and ends-up driving at least one to Read More

Central Airport

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Sally Eilers, Tom Brown, Grant Mitchell

Synopsis: Aerial footage distinguishes this romantic-triangle melodrama set among pilots in a flying circus. Jill (Sally Eilers) loves Jim (Richard Barthelmess), but he insists that fliers shouldn't marry, so the disappointed Jill marries his younger brother Neil (Tom Brown) instead. The resulting tensions Read More

As the Devil Commands

Actors: Alan Dinehart, Mae Clark, Neil Hamilton, Charles Sellon, Charles Coleman

Synopsis: Slowly dying of an unspecified illness, wealthy invalid Charles Sellon wants his aide Neil Hamilton to end his suffering. Hamilton won't do it, but villainous lawyer Alan Dinehart, in line to inherit Sellon's millions, is not so charitable. Dinehart kills Sellon, then makes it look as though Hamilton Read More

Strictly Personal

Actors: Marjorie Rambeau, Edward Ellis, Dorothy Jordan, Eddie Quillan, Louis Calhern

Make Me a Star

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Joan Blondell, ZaSu Pitts, Ben Turpin, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: Joan Blondell, borrowed for the occasion from Warner Bros., earned top-billing in this delightful Hollywood parable, but the real star is of course Stuart Erwin as the irrepressible grocery clerk Merton Gill. Paramount screenwriters Saul Mintz, Walter De Leon and Arthur Kober based their witty Read More

Central Park

Synopsis: Two small-town youths head for the Big Apple and somehow get mixed up with mobsters during a visit to the title park in this episodic comedy drama filmed on location. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Dark Horse

Actors: Warren William, Bette Davis, Guy Kibbee, Frank McHugh, Vivienne Osborne

Synopsis: Alfred E. Green directs the political satire The Dark Horse, starring Bette Davis early in her career. The progressive party nominates moronic candidate Zachary Hicks (Guy Kibbee) for governor. Party secretary Kay Russell (Davis) wants to hire her sweetheart, Hal Blake (Warren William), for Read More

The Drifter

Actors: William Farnum, Noah Beery, Sr., Phyllis Barrington, Bruce Warren

Synopsis: In this drama, a roving lumberjack gets snagged between a feud between two logging companies. One of the bosses is his estranged brother. The other boss has a daughter who is really the offspring of a fugitive. The escaped convict, not knowing that she is his, abducts her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Read More

I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang

Actors: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Noel Francis, Preston S. Foster, Edward McNamara

Synopsis: Warner Bros.' hard-hitting chain-gang movie was a faithful adaptation of the similarly titled autobiography of Robert Elliot Burns. Paul Muni plays World War I veteran James Allen, whose plans of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Flat broke, Allen is Read More

Speed Madness

Actors: Lucien Littlefield, Charles Sellon, Nancy Drexel, Pat O'Malley, Huntly Gordon

Synopsis: In this drama, the son of a shipping tycoon is left to reflect upon his life after his lover abandons him. He decides that it is time he pulled his weight and did something useful and so begins working on a new boat to help his father's financially foundering company. He decides to enter his new Read More

Ride Him, Cowboy

Actors: John Wayne, Ruth Hall, Henry B. Walthall, Harry Gribbon, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: Ride Him, Cowboy was the first entry in John Wayne's "B"-western series for Warner Bros. Wayne plays John Drury, a handsome stranger who is blamed for a recent wave of barn-burnings. On the verge of being lynched, John is exonerated by the previously unconscious victim of the villains. At this Read More

Carnival Boat

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Fred Kohler, Hobart Bosworth, Marie Prevost

Synopsis: A pre-Hopalong Cassidy William Boyd is the robust star of this logging camp melodrama which also featured a very young Ginger Rogers -- who performs Bernard Grossman and Harold Lewis' "How Could I Love You" -- and Hollywood veteran Hobart Bosworth. The latter plays Jim Gannon, a lumberjack boss Read More

Behind Office Doors

Actors: Mary Astor, Robert Ames, Ricardo Cortez, Kitty Kelly, Edna Murphy

Synopsis: A pompous executive has a hard time admitting that his hard-working, devoted secretary is really the one pulling the strings in his office and is behind his promotion to company president. As a result, he takes her for granted until she falls in love with another up-and-coming executive. Romantic Read More

Penrod and Sam

Actors: Leon Janney, Matt Moore, Dorothy Peterson, Johnny Arthur

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1923, Booth Tarkington's nostalgic novel Penrod and Sam made its first talking-picture appearance in 1931 (both versions were directed by William Beaudine). The title roles are essayed by two of the most talented and ubiquitous juvenile performers of the 1930s, Leon Janney and Junior Coughlan Read More

Laugh and Get Rich

Actors: Hugh Herbert, Edna May Oliver, Dorothy Lee, Robert Emmett Keane, John Harron

Synopsis: This Depression-era comedy takes place in the boarding house run by the indomitable Sarah Austin (Edna May Oliver). Sarah's indigent husband Joe (Hugh Herbert), spends most of his time cooking up pie-in-the-sky get-rich-quick schemes, few of which come to fruition. In time-honored "domestic Read More

Dude Ranch

Actors: Jack Oakie, Stuart Erwin, Eugene Pallette, Mitzi Green, June Collyer

Synopsis: Two of Paramount's best contract comedians made a rare joint appearance in Dude Ranch. Jack Oakie heads the cast as Jennifer (sic!), the head of a travelling troupe of repertory actors. Finding themselves on the premises of a dude ranch, Jennifer and his actors strike up a deal with ranch Read More

The Tip-Off

Actors: Eddie Quillan, Robert Armstrong, Ginger Rogers, Joan Peers, Ralf Harolde

Synopsis: A boxer and his girl try to dissuade their friend from getting involved with a Mafioso's gal. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Man to Man

Actors: Grant Mitchell, Lucille Powers, Phillips Holmes, George F. Marion, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: Man to Man refers to the relationship between father John Bolton (Grant Mitchell) and son Michael (Phillips Holmes) -- or least, to the relationship as it should be. After serving a prison sentence for homicide (established by the screenwriters as justifiable), John starts life anew as a Read More

The Painted Desert

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Clark Gable, William Farnum, John Farrell MacDonald, Helen Twelvetrees

Synopsis: In this western, an orphan who is discovered alone in the desert is raised by a kindly family. The only dark spot in their lives comes from a long-standing feud with another family, something that eventually comes to an end when the orphan grows up and falls in love with the enemy family's Read More

Under a Texas Moon

Actors: Frank Fay, Raquel Torres, Myrna Loy, Armida, Noah Beery, Sr.

Synopsis: Comedian Frank Fay and director Michael Curtiz reportedly despised one another at sight, and their mutual animosity tends to seep through every frame of Under a Texas Moon. The vainglorious Fay is cast as Don Carlos, a gay caballero ("gay" meaning "carefree") whose serenades every senorita he Read More

Let's Go Native

Actors: Jack Oakie, Jeanette MacDonald, James Hall, William Austin

Synopsis: Few films outside of Let's Go Native could boast a cast as diverse as Jack Oakie, Jeanette MacDonald and Kay Francis -- all under the direction of Leo McCarey. A variation of the "Admirable Crichton" theme, the story concerns a group of highly incompatible people, all stranded on a tropical Read More

The Social Lion

Actors: Jack Oakie, Mary Brian, Olive Borden, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: In this high-spirited satire of competitive sports, boxer Marco Perkins is creamed during a fight and decides to play polo instead so he can impress an extremely wealthy young woman who merely considers him amusing. The poor social climbing fellow soon learns that she is only toying with his Read More

Sea Legs

Actors: Jack Oakie, Harry Green, Lillian Roth, Eugene Pallette, Albert Conti

Synopsis: Here we go again. Sailor "Searchlight" Hogan (Jack Oakie) has a yen for every pretty girl who crosses his path. Imagine his delight, then, when Hogan is assigned to the European vessel captained by a man (Albert Conti) with a host of gorgeous daughters. The most gorgeous of the bunch is Adrienne (Lilian Roth Read More

Men Are Like That

Actors: Hal Skelly, Charles Sellon, Clara Blandick, Morgan Farley

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1926, the George Kelly stage comedy The Show-Off was remade in 1930 as Men Are Like That. Broadway star Hal Skelly steps into the role of chronic braggart Aubrey Piper, incapable of either telling the truth or shutting up. Insinuating himself into the home of his wife Amy's (Doris Hill Read More

Love among the Millionaires

Actors: Clara Bow, Stanley Smith, Mitzi Green, Stuart Erwin

Synopsis: Clara Bow, the "It" girl of the silent screen, goes through the motions of the Cinderella yarn Love Among the Millionaires. A humble (but dazzlingly beautiful) waitress, Pepper Green (Bow) wins the heart of Jerry (Stanley Smith), the son of a wealthy railroad magnate Hamilton (Claude King). The Read More

For the Love O'Lil

Actors: Jack Mulhall, Elliott Nugent, Sally Starr, Margaret Livingston, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: Lawyer Wyn Huntley (Jack Mulhall) is a lion in the courtroom, but a lamb when it comes to women. In love with the beautiful but financially irresponsible Lil (Sally Starr), Wyn is advised that the way to Lil's heart is to indulge her every extravagance. Unfortunately, the man offering this advice Read More

Burning Up

Actors: Mary Brian, Francis McDonald, Sam Hardy, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: The popular silent-film screen team of Richard Arlen and Mary Brian was carried over into talkies with such films as Burning Up. In emulation of the late movie idol Wally Reid, Arlen is cast as daredevil race-car driver Lou Larrigan. Much to the dismay of his sweetheart Ruth Morgan (Brian) Read More

Tom Sawyer

Actors: Jackie Coogan, Junior Durkin, Mitzi Green, Lucien Littlefield, Tully Marshall

Synopsis: Tom Sawyer, Paramount's 1930 Christmas release, was the first talkie version of Mark Twain's beloved novel. A rapidly maturing Jackie Coogan is well cast as Tom, while Junior Durkin is even better as Tom's freewheeling pal Huck Finn. Juvenile impressionist Mitzi Green comes on a bit too strong in Read More

Borrowed Wives

Actors: Rex Lease, Vera Reynolds, Nita Martan, Paul Hurst, Robert Randall

Synopsis: Intending to get value for money out of their house leading man Rex Lease, Tiffany Studios cast the personable actor in everything from westerns to sports dramas to domestic comedies like Borrowed Wives. Lease plays Peter Foley, who stands to inherit a fortune from his late uncle. The problem: To Read More

Honey

Actors: Nancy Carroll, Stanley Smith, Lillian Roth, Harry Green

Synopsis: The 1916 Alice Duer Miller play Come Out of the Kitchen, previously filmed in 1921 with Marguerite Clark, was expertly transformed into early musical Honey. The story takes place in a poverty-stricken Virginia household, where blue-blooded brother and sister Olivia and Charles Dangerfield (Nancy Carroll Read More

The Vagabond Lover

Actors: Rudy Vallee, Sally Blane, Marie Dressler, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: In his movie debut, Rudy Valley portrays the crooning saxophone player who falls in love with a beautiful young woman. Classic romantic tale is fun with Marie Dressler outstanding in her role as the wealthy eccentric. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Bulldog Drummond

Actors: Ronald Colman, Claud Allister, Joan Bennett, Lilyan Tashman, Lawrence Grant, Montagu Love

Synopsis: Tired of his sedentary postwar existence, Col. Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond (Ronald Colman) offers his services as adventurer for hire. This gets him mixed up with lovely Joan Bennett, whose wealthy father is being held against his will in a gloomy sanitarium. Armed with little more than bravado Read More

Big News

Actors: Robert Armstrong, Carole Lombard, Sam Hardy, Tom Kennedy, Louis Payne

Synopsis: A primitive early talkie from Pathé, this crime drama starred relative newcomers Robert Armstrong and Carole Lombard, the latter still spelling her first name Carol. They play husband and wife, she threatening divorce unless he devotes more of his time to their marriage. In reality, Armstrong is Read More

Hot Stuff

Actors: Alice White, Louise Fazenda, William Bakewell, Doris Dawson, Ben Hall

Synopsis: In this college romp, a free-spirited aunt decides to use a $10,000 insurance settlement to send her niece to college. She then accompanies her as a chaperone. The niece is quite pretty and immediately becomes the "hottest thing on campus." This causes riotous trouble for the protective aunt. Read More

The Mighty

Actors: George Bancroft, Esther Ralston, Warner Oland, Raymond Hatton, Dorothy Revier

Synopsis: In this melodrama set during WW I, a gangster joins the army and is promoted to major. He then returns from war torn Europe to tell a family that their beloved son had died in his arms during a battle. The major then falls in love with the late soldier's sister and decides to accept a position in Read More

The Gamblers

Actors: H.B. Warner, Lois Wilson, Jason Robards, Sr., George Fawcett, Johnny Arthur

Synopsis: The 1929 Wall Street crash was still two months in the future when Warner Bros.' Gamblers was released in the late summer of 1929. Jason Robards Sr. and George Fawcett play Carvel Emerson Jr. and Emerson Sr., father-and-son stock manipulators who "gamble" their firm's assets on a risky Read More

The Girl in the Glass Cage

Actors: Loretta Young, Matthew Betz, Lucien Littlefield, Charles Sellon, Julia Swayne Gordon

Synopsis: In her second talking picture, Loretta Young stars as Gladys Cosgrove, the ticket-taker at a small-town movie house. Although she's sweet on socialite Terry Pomfret (Carrol Nye), Gladys is ardently pursued by gangster Doc Striker (Matthew Betz). This results in a loud and very public confrontation Read More

Sweetie

Actors: Nancy Carroll, Helen Kane, Stanley Smith, Jack Oakie, William Austin

Synopsis: In this college-campus musical, a Broadway star finds herself the proud owner of a North Carolina college. The star's boy friend attends the school where he is a big football hero. The trouble begins when the star begins trying to convince the young man to forget about school and elope with her Read More

The Man and the Moment

Actors: Billie Dove, Rod La Rocque, Gwen Lee, Robert Schable, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: Two young people get married for all the wrong reasons in this romance. Both are wealthy and are trying to run away from their problems. The bride wants to flee her overbearing guardian. The groom wants to ditch a blonde gold digger who dogs him everywhere. Following the wedding, the two spend the Read More

The Saturday Night Kid

Actors: Clara Bow, James Hall, Jean Arthur, Charles Sellon, Ethel Wales

Synopsis: Clara Bow and her sister Jean Arthur are wisecracking department store employees with ever-roaming eyes for eligible bachelors--particularly those with fat bank accounts. Both girls fall for the same wealthy man (James Hall) but Bow temporarily loses out to Arthur, who is just a tad craftier and a Read More

Feel My Pulse

Actors: Bebe Daniels, George Irving, Charles Sellon, William Powell

Synopsis: Bebe Daniels' popular Paramount comedies of the 1920s frequently cast the sprightly heroine as a female Douglas Fairbanks, saving the day with equal parts cleverness and physical dexterity. Feel My Pulse is a typically Fairbanksian romp, with Daniels playing a sheltered rich girl who has been Read More

What a Night!

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Neil Hamilton, William Austin, Wheeler Oakman, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: Bebe Daniels once again plays an intrepid -- and somewhat foolhardy -- girl reporter in Paramount's What a Night!. A spoiled socialite, Dorothy Winston (Daniels) decides to prove that she's a valuable member of society by becoming a news hound. She manages to get the goods on mobster boss Mike Read More

Easy Come, Easy Go

Actors: Richard Dix, Nancy Carroll, Charles Sellon, Frank Currier, Arnold Kent

Synopsis: Richard Dix's star power goes a long way towards assuring the success of Easy Come, Easy Go. Dix plays radio announcer Robert Parker, working at a station run by his girlfriend's father. Becoming a bit overexcited on the air, our hero lets slip a few (fortuitously unheard) profanities. Fired from Read More

Happiness Ahead

Actors: Colleen Moore, Edmund Lowe, Lilyan Tashman, Edythe Chapman, Charles Sellon

Count of Ten

Actors: James Gleason, Charles Ray, Jobyna Ralston, Edythe Chapman, Arthur Lake

Synopsis: Veteran stage actor/playwright James Gleason made his film debut in the Universal comedy The Count of Ten. In fact, Gleason received top billing over onetime screen favorite Charles Ray, an indication that Ray's days of prominence were numbered. Returning to the "yokel" characterization that won Read More

Something Always Happens

Actors: Esther Ralston, Neil Hamilton, Sojin, Charles Sellon, Lawrence Grant

Synopsis: Esther Ralston stars as Diana, the American houseguest of the stuffy Earl of Rochester (Lawrence Grant). Finding her host and her surroundings deadly dull, Diana isn't exactly looking forward to her impending marriage to the Earl's son Roderick (Neil Hamilton). When master criminal Chang-Tzo (Sojin Read More

The King of Kings

Actors: H.B. Warner, Dorothy Cumming, Ernest Torrence, Joseph Schildkraut, James Neill

Synopsis: Having scored big-time box office with his first Biblical epic, The Ten Commandments (1923), Cecil B. DeMille hoped to top this success with his 1927 The King of Kings. Inasmuch as he was now dealing with the life of Christ, DeMille had to be careful to serve up equal amounts of showmanship and Read More

The Valley of the Giants

Actors: Milton Sills, Doris Kenyon, Arthur Stone, George Fawcett, Paul Hurst

Synopsis: Valley of the Giants is about the struggle between the evil Pennington (Charles Sellon), owner of a local railroad and Bruce Cardigan (Milton Sills), whose family owns a lumber mill. Pennington wants control of the Cardigan possessions, so he cuts off service to the mill. The Cardigans also need Read More

The Mysterious Rider

Actors: Jack Holt, Charles Sellon, Tom Kennedy, David Torrence, Betty Jewel

Synopsis: Jack Holt stars as Ben Wade, a rancher framed on a robbery charge by crooked lawyer Harkness (Charles Sellon). The villain is in league with land-usurping millionaire Mark King (David Torrence), who intends to keep his neighboring ranchers at bay by hiring New York gangsters as his henchmen. Read More

Painted Ponies

Actors: Hoot Gibson

Synopsis: Arriving in the small town of Toptown to participate in the local rodeo, Buck Sims (Hoot Gibson) meets lovely Pony Blenning (Ethlyne Clair), who, with her crippled father (Charles Sellon), operates a merry-go-round. Pony's regular suitor, town bully Pinto Pete (William Dunn), attempts to warn off Read More

Prairie King

Actors: Hoot Gibson

Synopsis: This average Universal series western starred Hoot Gibson as Andy Barden, a cowboy who along with two others inherit a gold mine. Of course, one of the new co-owners, Dan Murdock (Albert Prisco), is a crook and Barden is soon up to his neck in trouble. Barbara Worth who played Gibson's love Read More

Easy Pickings

Actors: Philo McCullough, Anna Q. Nilsson, Kenneth Harlan, Billy Bevan, Jerry Miley

Synopsis: Easy Pickings was one of a rash of "old dark house" comedies produced in the wake of 1926's The Bat. This time Mary Ryan (Anna Q. Nilsson) and Peter Van Horne (Kenneth Harlan) become trapped in a forbidding mansion festooned with sinister types and supposed ghosts. Questionable comedy relief is Read More

Racing Blood

Actors: Robert Agnew, Charles Sellon, Anne Cornwall, John H. Elliott

Synopsis: College students Jimmy (Robert Agnew) and Muriel (Anne Cornwall) fall in love, but their romance is broken up when Jimmy discovers that his guardian has lost all his money in a horse race -- and that the winning horse was owned by Muriel's father Later on, Jimmy buys a horse at a circus auction Read More

Whispering Wires

Synopsis: With Mack Swain and Arthur Houseman in the cast, it's obvious that this murder mystery-melodrama has a lot of comic relief. There are murders being committed, and each one is foretold by a phone call in which a whispering voice relates the hour it will happen. After two of these strange deaths Read More

Speeding Venus

Actors: Priscilla Dean, Robert W. Frazer, Ray Ripley, Dale Fuller, Johnny Fox

Synopsis: The Speeding Venus is Emily Carol (Priscilla Dean), forced by circumstance to embark on a cross-country motor trip. It all begins when John Steele (Robert Frazer) and Chet Higgins (Ray Ripley), the two nephews of Ford-like auto manufacturer Jed Morgan (Charles Sellon) compete against one another Read More

Old Home Week

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Lila Lee, Charles Dow Clark, Max Figman

Synopsis: Thomas Meighan plays Tom Clark, who left his home town to make good -- and wound up as part owner of a hapless gas station. On the train back to his old town for "old home week," however, he is mistakenly thought to be a big oil man. Ethel Harmon (Lila Lee), daughter of Judge Harmon (Sidney Read More

Private Affairs

Actors: Robert Agnew, Mildred Harris, David Butler, Arthur Hoyt

Synopsis: This comedy-drama is mostly a collection of different stories, all intertwined, with a cast that consists of solid second-string actors and no stars. When Howard Bomar (Willis Marks), the postmaster of a small town, suddenly dies, a packet of five-year-old letters is found. These are sent out and Read More

The Night Ship

Actors: Mary Carr, Tom Santschi, Robert Gordon, Margaret Fielding, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: Written and directed by Henry McCarthy, this water-logged silent melodrama from poverty row company Gotham sunk soon after it's February 1925 release. The mother of all silent-screen mothers, Mary Carr), was top-billed but succumbed early on in the proceedings, a victim of evil sea captain Jed Read More

The Monster

Actors: Lon Chaney, Gertrude Olmstead, Hallam Cooley, Johnny Arthur, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: It's hard to tell at times whether director Roland West was aiming for laughs or thrills in The Monster, but this ambivalence is all part of the fun. Hallam Cooley and Johnny Arthur, two dumb clerks in Gertrude Olmstead's small-town general store, try to impress Olmstead by joining the sheriff's Read More

Lucky Devil

Actors: Richard Dix, Esther Ralston, Edna May Oliver, Tom Findley, Anthony Jowitt

Synopsis: If the plot to this breezy romantic comedy sounds like something that would have starred the late Wallace Reid, there's a reason -- the story was penned by Byron Morgan, who wrote most of Reid's racing films. Dandy Farnan (Richard Dix) works in a department store demonstrating camping gear. He Read More

Tracked in the Snow Country

Actors: June Marlowe, David Butler, Mitchell Lewis, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: The most popular canine star of his era, Rin Tin Tin is falsely accused of killing his owner, an old prospector (Charles Sellon), and forced to flee into the woods in this exciting Northwest melodrama produced by Warner Brothers. The real murderer, however, is Jules Renault (Mitchell Lewis), who Read More

Merton of the Movies

Actors: Glenn Hunter, Viola Dana, DeWitt Jennings, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: This first of three film versions of the George S. Kaufman/Marc Connelly stage comedy Merton of the Movies stars Glenn Hunter in the title role. A small-town boy with big-time ideas, Merton heads to Hollywood, hoping to become a great dramatic star in films. Before long, he's on the verge of Read More

Lover's Lane

Actors: Robert Ellis, Gertrude Olmstead, Maxine Hicks, Norval MacGregor

Synopsis: This romantic comedy from Warner Bros. was based on the stage play by Clyde Fitch. Although Mary Larkin (Gertrude Olmstead) loves Tom Singleton (Robert Ellis), she can't see herself as the wife of a country doctor. Since Singleton won't leave the little New England town where they live, Mary Read More

South Sea Love

Actors: Shirley Mason, Francis McDonald, Lillian Nicholson, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: Except for the pretty backgrounds, pert Shirley Mason is just about the only bright spark in this otherwise tired and cliché South Seas drama. Dolores Medina (Mason) meets English trader Gerald Wilton (J. Frank Glendon) on the ship run by her father (Charles A. Sellon). She falls in love with him Read More

Woman-Proof

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Lila Lee, John St. Polis, Louise Dresser, Robert Agnew

Synopsis: When wealthy Rockwood dies, he wills his fortune to his four grown children, providing they're all married by a certain date. Failing that, the money will go to charity. Three of the Rockwood siblings are quick to find matches but Tom Rockwood (Thomas Meighan) is determined to wait for true love. Read More

Bad Man

Actors: Holbrook Blinn, Jack Mulhall, Walter McGrail, Enid Bennett, Harry Myers

Synopsis: As a stage play, The Bad Man was a success because of its hilarious and colorful dialogue. That was lost when it was made into a film, and the subtitles didn't quite make up for it. However, Holbrook Blinn reprised the role he played on stage, Manuel Lopez (a take on Pancho Villa), and his Read More