Chester ConklinFilmography

The Funniest Man in the World

Synopsis: A video compilation of cutting-room-floor footage from the works of Charles Chaplin. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. narrates. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

A Big Hand for the Little Lady

Actors: Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Jr., Charles Bickford, Burgess Meredith, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ford, Chester Conklin, Mae Clarke

Synopsis: The action in A Big Hand for the Little Lady centers around a high-stake poker game. The participants include some of the wealthiest men in the West (among them Jason Robards Jr., Kevin McCarthy, Charles Bickford and Paul Ford). Into this rarefied atmosphere trudges impoverished farmer Henry Read More

Paradise Alley

Synopsis: Stars in the Back Yard is an alternate title for filmmaker Hugo Haas' valedictory feature Paradise Alley. Taking a breather from his usual plot (a dirty old man victimized by a sluttish young wife), Haas casts himself as a washed-up Hollywood director. Hoping to prove that people are basically Read More

Rock-A-Bye Baby

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Marilyn Maxwell, Connie Stevens, Salvatore Baccaloni, Reginald Gardiner

Synopsis: In this comedy, an awkward TV repairman finds himself falling for an actress who doesn't even know he exists and instead marries a dashing Mexican bullfighter. Unfortunately, he dies the day after their wedding; fortunately, he managed to impregnate her. Unfortunately, she is soon supposed to be Read More

The Beast With a Million Eyes

Actors: Paul Birch, Lorna Thayer, Donna Cole, Leonard Tarver, Chester Conklin

Synopsis: Notable only for the presence of former silent film great Chester Conklin, this silly sci-fi flick from legendary producer Roger Corman is a murky blend of alien-invasion fare such as It Came from Outer Space and sundry "animals-run-amok" movies. When an invading alien (possessing far less than a Read More

Apache Woman

Actors: Lloyd Bridges, Joan Taylor, Lance Fuller, Morgan Jones, Paul Birch

Synopsis: In 1870s Arizona, Anne LeBeau (Joan Taylor) is caught between two cultures in a conflict that may kill her and her brother Armand (Lance Fuller). They're the children of a white French father and an Apache mother (the daughter of a chief, no less), and they find that they're equally despised by Read More

Son of Paleface

Actors: Bob Hope, Jane Russell, Roy Rogers, Bill Williams, Lloyd Corrigan

Synopsis: A sequel to Bob Hope's 1948 box-office success The Paleface, 1952's Son of Paleface is a superior product in every way, thanks largely to the spirited, creative direction of Frank Tashlin. Hope is cast as Junior Potter, a Harvard-educated dude who heads West to claim the inheritance left him by Read More

My Favorite Spy

Actors: Bob Hope, Hedy Lamarr, Francis L. Sullivan, Arnold Moss, John Archer

Synopsis: Bob Hope is up to his famous nose in danger in this espionage comedy. Second-rate burlesque comic Peanuts White (Hope) is approached by federal agents who think that he's international spy Eric Augustine, to whom Peanuts bears a striking resemblance. When they realize that Peanuts and Eric are two Read More

The Milkman

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Jimmy Durante, Joyce Holden, William Conrad, Piper Laurie

Synopsis: The Milkman is a low-key variation of a theme explored in such slapstick festivals as The Fuller Brush Man and The Yellow Cab Man. Donald O'Connor plays Roger Bradley, who hopes to become a top-flight milkman to please his father (Henry O'Neill), the owner of the milk company. Jimmy Durante Read More

Humphrey Takes a Chance

Actors: Leon Errol, Joe Kirkwood, Jr., Lois Collier, Robert Coogan, Jack Kirkwood

Synopsis: This "Joe Palooka" entry concentrates on Joe's porcine pal Humphrey Pennyworth (played by Robert Coogan, the brother of former child star Jackie Coogan). When soft-hearted pugilist Joe Palooka (Joe Kirkwood Jr.) arrives for a bout in Humphrey's home town, everyone gets sucked into a crooked scheme Read More

Shakedown

Actors: Howard Duff, Brian Donlevy, Peggy Dow, Lawrence Tierney, Bruce Bennett

Synopsis: Two-bit photographer Howard Duff wins a big newspaper assignment by romancing his lady boss (Peggy Dow). Duff is sent to take a picture of criminal Brian Donlevy, who doesn't like to be captured on celluloid. Donlevy takes a liking to Duff and asks him to frame one of the crook's less cooperative Read More

Never a Dull Moment

Actors: Irene Dunne, Fred MacMurray, William Demarest, Andy Devine

Synopsis: In this 1951 comedy Irene Dunne stars as Kay, a Manhattan-based songwriter who marries widowed rodeo cowboy Chris (Fred MacMurray). In the tradition of The Egg and I, Kay suffers a great deal of culture shock when she moves into Chris' western ranch. When she isn't being bedeviled by her new Read More

Fancy Pants

Actors: Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Bruce Cabot, Jack Kirkwood, Lea Penman, Eric Blore

Synopsis: Fancy Pants is a musicalized remake of the oft-filmed Harry Leon Wilson story Ruggles of Red Gap, tailored to the talents of "Mr. Robert Hope (formerly Bob)". The basic plotline of the original, that of an English butler entering the service of a rowdy nouveau-riche family from the American West Read More

Let's Dance

Actors: Fred Astaire, Betty Hutton, Roland Young, Ruth Warrick, Lucile Watson, Gregory Moffett

Synopsis: Fred Astaire and Betty Hutton make a surprisingly copacetic screen team in Let's Dance. Hutton plays a more sedate role than usual as war widow Kitty McNeil. Not wishing to have her young son Richard (Gregory Moffatt) grow up in the stiff and stuffy environs of her Boston in-laws' mansion, Kitty Read More

Knock on Any Door

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, John Derek, George Macready, Allene Roberts, Susan Perry

Synopsis: Though Humphrey Bogart is the official star of Knock on Any Door, the film is essentially a showcase for Columbia's newest young male discovery John Derek. The first production of Bogart's Santana company, the film casts Bogart as attorney Andrew Morton. A product of the slums, Morton is persuaded Read More

The Golden Stallion

Actors: Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Estelita Rodriguez, Pat Brady, Douglas Evans

Synopsis: Part of the Roy Rogers series, this film focuses on Roy Roger's horse, Trigger, and his infatuation with a handsome palomino mare. When Trigger discovers the mare being beaten by her lowlife owner, he kills him, leaving Rogers to take the blame. However, it seems that Trigger's new girlfriend Read More

The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend

Actors: Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, Rudy Vallee, Olga San Juan, Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: Preston Sturges' final American film was generally conceded to be a disaster in 1949; even star Betty Grable publicly bad-mouthed the finished product. When seen today, Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, while no classic, seems a lot better than it did five decades ago. Grable plays a western Read More

Isn't It Romantic?

Actors: Veronica Lake, Mona Freeman, Mary Hatcher, Billy De Wolfe, Roland Culver

Synopsis: One of the more popular movie-review paperbacks sums up Paramount's Isn't it Romantic? with a terse "No." There's actually more to the film than that, but not much. Set in Indiana in the 1890s, the story revolves around an diehard Confederate soldier named Major Euclid Cameron (Rolan Culver), who Read More

Springtime in the Sierras

Actors: Stephanie Bachelor, Roy Barcroft, Harry V. Cheshire, Chester Conklin

Synopsis: Republic's Springtime in the Sierras bestows upon star Roy Rogers two leading ladies. The first is his usual vis-a-vis Jane Frazee; the second is statuesque Stephanie Bachelor, playing the head of a poaching gang. Bachelor, it seems, has murdered a game warden who happens to be Rogers' closest Read More

The Perils of Pauline

Actors: Betty Hutton, John Lund, Constance Collier, William Demarest, Billy De Wolfe

Synopsis: The third of four films bearing the title of The Perils of Pauline, this musical biopic purports to tell the life story of famed silent serial queen Pearl White. Right at the beginning, however, an introductory title informs the audience that what follows is merely "suggested" by incidents in White Read More

Song of Scheherazade

Actors: Patricia Alphin, Yvonne De Carlo, Brian Donlevy, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Eve Arden, Phillip Reed, William Brooks

Synopsis: Bearing little resemblance to reality, this musical biography of 19th century Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov takes liberal poetic license with the truth. Jeanne-Pierre Aumont stars as Nicky, a Naval Academy cadet assigned to a vessel undergoing a world cruise. On shore leave in Morocco Read More

Song of the Wasteland

Synopsis: C&W singer Jimmy Wakely would never be Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, but he strove to please. In Song of the Wasteland, Jimmy tries to uphold law and order in a tough frontier town. The villainy was in the grimy hands of Holly Bane, Pierce Lyden, Ted Adams and George Cheseboro, so Wakely had his work Read More

The Trouble with Women

Actors: Ray Milland, Teresa Wright, Rose Hobart, Charles Smith

Synopsis: In this comedy, a scatter-brained professor nearly starts a riot when he writes a book claiming that women like to be treated roughly. A paper publishes snippets from the book and later the professor, feeling he was misquoted, begins suing for libel. The paper then sends out a female reporter to Read More

The Hoodlum Saint

Actors: William Powell, Esther Williams, Angela Lansbury, James Gleason, Lewis Stone

Synopsis: William Powell plays a cynical con man who graduates from penny-ante operations to a big-time charity racket. The scam involves collecting money on behalf of St. Dismas, bringing Powell in close contact with several men of the cloth. As the racket rolls on, Powell is touched by the sincerity of Read More

She Wrote the Book

Actors: Joan Davis, Jack Oakie, Mischa Auer, Kirby Grant, John Litel

Synopsis: In this comedy, a puritanical math teacher at a midwestern university is forced by the dean's wife to go to New York to collect the royalties for a naughty romance the latter wrote under a penname. Unfortunately, while there, the professor suffers a blow to the noodle and wakes up believing that Read More

Fear

Actors: Peter Cookson, Warren William, Anne Gwynne, James B. Cardwell, Nestor Paiva

Synopsis: Peter Cookson, Monogram's answer to Jimmy Stewart, stars in Fear, also known as Black Tower Cookson plays a medical student who becomes involved in a murder. Anne Gwynne is the girl who doesn't completely trust Cookson, but helps him out anyway. Also appearing as one of those oh-too-helpful types Read More

Smooth As Silk

Actors: Kent Taylor, Virginia Grey, Jane Adams, Milburn Stone, John Litel

Synopsis: Charles Barton took a break from his Abbott and Costello assignments at Universal to direct the second-feature thriller Smooth as Silk. Kent Taylor plays a slick criminal lawyer adept at all sorts of sneaky legalistic tricks. Taylor's girl friend Virginia Grey jilts him for the more honest Milburn Stone Read More

Little Giant

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Brenda Joyce, Jacqueline De Wit, George Cleveland

Synopsis: With the profits of the Abbott & Costello films in decline, Universal decided to experiment with the comedians' standard formula. In both Little Giant and The Time of Their Lives, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello play separate characters, rather than the usual smart guy/dumb guy comedy team. In Giant, Costello Read More

Singin' in the Corn

Actors: Judy Canova, Allen Jenkins, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Al Bridge, Charles Halton

Synopsis: With a title like Singin' in the Corn, how could the star be anyone else but rambunctious rustic comedienne Judy Canova. This time, Canova plays Judy McCoy, a carnival mind-reader playing the boonies in the company of her partner Glen Cummings (Allen Jenkins). Judy's travelling days come to an end Read More

Micro-Phonies

Synopsis: A little over a year after this Three Stooges short was made, Curly Howard would suffer a stroke and go into retirement. But even though he was often ill during this period, he still did some of the best work of his career. He's in top form for this comedy, a favorite among Stooge fanatics. The Read More

Knickerbocker Holiday

Actors: Nelson Eddy, Charles Coburn, Constance Dowling, Ernest Cossart, Shelley Winters, Johnnie Davis, Percy Kilbride

Synopsis: The wild and woolly early days of New York -- when it was still known as New Amsterdam -- provide the backdrop for this period musical-comedy. In 1650, Peter Stuyvesant (Charles Coburn) arrives in New Amsterdam to assume his duties as governor. Stuyvesant is hardly the fun-loving type, and one of Read More

The Man from Frisco

Actors: Michael O'Shea, Anne Shirley, Gene Lockhart, Dan Duryea, Stephanie Bachelor, Tommy Bond

Synopsis: This 91-minute Republic "special" stars Michael O'Shea as Matt Braddock, an aggressive Henry Kaiser-like shipbuilder operating in 1880s California Though his business innovations are brilliant, Braddock's pugnacious attitude loses him the support of the locals when he plans to build a big new Read More

Sunday Dinner for a Soldier

Actors: Anne Baxter, John Hodiak, Charles Winninger, Anne Revere

Synopsis: Charles Winninger plays an old seaman who rules the roost in his family, which resides on a Florida houseboat. His oldest granddaughter (Anne Baxter) draws up plans to invite a serviceman for Sunday dinner, just before the boy will be shipped out. Because of their ramshackle lifestyle, Winninger's Read More

Goodnight Sweetheart

Actors: Robert Livingston, Ruth Terry, Henry Hull, Grant Withers, Thurston Hall

Synopsis: In this drama a big-city reporter moves to a tiny town to begin running the newspaper he half-owns. His in-your-face reporting style does not make him very popular; especially when he begins causing trouble for the incumbent mayor's opposition. It is the candidate's pretty niece who teaches the Read More

Can't Help Singing

Actors: Deanna Durbin, Robert Paige, Akim Tamiroff, David Bruce, Leonid Kinskey

Synopsis: Deanna Durbin's first Technicolor feature is a lavish musical western, replete with a Jerome Kern-E. Y. Harburg score. Set in the mid-19th century, the story finds Caroline (Durbin), daughter of a wealthy senator, bound and determined to wed dashing cavalry officer Lawlor (Robert Paige). When the Read More

The Great Moment

Actors: Joel McCrea, Betty Field, Harry Carey, William Demarest, Louis Jean Heydt, Franklin Pangborn

Synopsis: After producing, writing and directing one hit film after another, Preston Sturges finally misfired with the biopic The Great Moment. Sturges was always fascinated with the saga of W.T.G. Morton, the 19th century Boston dentist who, after inventing the first truly effective anesthesia, was forced Read More

The Adventures of Mark Twain

Actors: Fredric March, Alexis Smith, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: Dismissed by critics as corny and obvious in 1944, this overlong but sincere biopic looks pretty good when seen today, cliches notwithstanding. Fredric March, 47 at the time, convincingly plays American author Sam Clemens, aka Mark Twain, from his early 20s to his death at 75. In typical Read More

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

Actors: Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn, William Demarest, Brian Donlevy, Porter Hall

Synopsis: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon 'em." Firmly in the latter category is Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken), a feckless wartime 4-F who must stand by helplessly as his sweetheart Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) entertains every visiting GI in town. One Read More

Hail the Conquering Hero

Actors: Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, William Demarest, Bill Edwards, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: It took nerve for writer/director Preston Sturges to lampoon the whole concept of hero worship in the middle of World War II, but once more Sturges' oddball sense of taste and propriety paid off at the box office in Hail the Conquering Hero. Eddie Bracken plays the son of a World War I Marine hero Read More

Around the World

Actors: Mischa Auer, Marcy McGuire, Wally Brown

Synopsis: In this '40s film Kay Kyser parades an entertainment group all over the globe providing laughs for the boys in battle. This film realistically portrays the role of the USO during the WW II time period. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Phony Express

Synopsis: In spite of its name, Peaceful Gulch is riddled by bullets and bad guys. The sheriff needs some men either brave enough or stupid enough to get rid of the varmints. When he sees a wanted poster for The Three Stooges (their crime is vagrancy and the reward is fifty cents, or three for a dollar), he Read More

Three Little Twirps

Synopsis: The Three Stooges were still in their prime when this short (the last one of theirs directed by Harry Edwards) was filmed. Larry, Moe and Curly play the most inept poster hangers imaginable and they are caught by their boss just as Curly is tearing his head through one of the posters. It turns out Read More

In Old California

Actors: John Wayne, Binnie Barnes, Helen Parrish, Patsy Kelly

Synopsis: With its slight resemblance to Destry Rides Again (1939) -- probably not entirely coincidental -- this rousing Western from Republic Pictures remains a joy throughout. John Wayne plays Tom Craig, a mild-mannered druggist from Boston who opens a shop in wild and woolly Sacramento shortly before the Read More

Sons of the Pioneers

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, Maris Wrixon, Forrest Taylor

Synopsis: Sons of the Pioneers is a showcase for?the Sons of the Pioneers, who are reteamed with ex-"Son" Roy Rogers in this budget western. The plot is contingent upon a deposit of rare minerals, vital to the American war effort. The villains want to get their hands on these minerals, and to do so organize Read More

I Married a Witch

Actors: Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Robert Benchley, Susan Hayward, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: As she burns at the stake, a 17th century witch, Jennifer (Veronica Lake), places a curse on her accuser (Fredric March), so that from this day forward, all of his descendants (each played by him) will be unhappy in marriage. After several hilarious through-the-years examples (the Civil War-era Fredric March Read More

Valley of the Sun

Actors: Lucille Ball, James Craig, Cedric Hardwicke, Dean Jagger, Peter Whitney

Synopsis: Though officially based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Clarence Buddington Kelland, RKO Radio's Valley of the Sun was obviously inspired by the blockbuster comedy western Destry Rides Again (indeed, both films were directed by George Marshall). James Craig stars as Indian scout Jonathan Read More

The Palm Beach Story

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee, William Demarest

Synopsis: As for the opening reels, the principal motivating factor is money. After a deliberately confusing pre-credit sequence (not explained until the film's punch line), Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) and Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) are married. "And so they lived happily ever after," exults a title Read More

Honolulu Lu

Synopsis: While in Hawaii, Velez begins the film as a risque nightclub act and due to her involvement with a group of sailors becomes a beauty queen. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Dutiful But Dumb

Synopsis: The Three Stooges star as inept photographers in this comic short. When they screw up their latest assignment -- getting a clandestine photo of a movie star and his new bride -- their boss (Vernon Dent) has had about enough of them. He sends them to Bulgaria for their next job -- mainly because Read More

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Actors: Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains, Rita Johnson, Edward Everett Horton

Synopsis: Robert Montgomery plays saxophone-playing boxer Joe Pendleton, who insists upon piloting his own plane, much to the consternation of his manager Max Corkle (James Gleason). Just before a championship bout, Joe's plane crashes. When he revives, he finds he has been whisked away to Heaven by the Read More

Sullivan's Travels

Actors: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn, Robert Warwick, Porter Hall

Synopsis: In Preston Sturges' classic comedy of Depression-era America, filmmaker John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea), fed up with directing profitable comedies like "Ants in Your Plants of 1939," is consumed with the desire to make a serious social statement in his upcoming film, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" Read More

Harmon of Michigan

Actors: Tom Harmon, Anita Louise, Oscar O'Shea, Warren Ashe

Synopsis: Harmon of Michigan was the first in a trio of Columbia sports films, each starring a real-life athlete. In this case, the title character is All-American halfback Tom Harmon, who when introduced in the film is on the verge of graduating from Michigan and turning professional. Shortly thereafter Read More

Li'l Abner

Actors: Granville Owen

Synopsis: This is the first of two filmed adaptations of Al Capp's classic comic strip, in which the title hillbilly (Granville Owen) does his best to avoid the marital advances of girlfriend Daisy Mae (Martha O'Driscoll). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

The Great Dictator

Actors: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner, Henry Daniell, Billy Gilbert

Synopsis: "This is the story of the period between two world wars--an interim during which insanity cut loose, liberty took a nose dive, and humanity was kicked around somewhat." With this pithy opening title, Charles Chaplin begins his first all-talking feature film, The Great Dictator. During World War I Read More

Chip of the Flying U

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Bob Baker, Fuzzy Knight, Doris Weston, Forrest Taylor

Synopsis: Chip of the Flying U was Johnny Mack Brown's first western entry for 1940. Brown essays the title role of Chip Bennett, foreman of the Flying U ranch. Before the second reel has tumbled over the spools, Chip finds himself falsely accused of robbery and murder. The actual miscreants are in the Read More

Hollywood Cavalcade

Actors: Alice Faye, Don Ameche, J. Edward Bromberg, Alan Curtis, Stuart Erwin

Synopsis: Hollywood Cavalcade was a fictionalized history of silent films and the growth of the movie industry. Don Ameche portrays a character based on equal portions of Mack Sennett and D. W. Griffith, while Alice Faye's silent star is an amalgam of Mabel Normand and Gloria Swanson. Ameche breaks into Read More

Zenobia

Actors: Oliver Hardy, Harry Langdon, Billie Burke, Alice Brady, James Ellison

Synopsis: With comedian Stan Laurel temporarily off his payroll due to a contract dispute, Hal Roach hastily put together a solo starring vehicle for Laurel's longtime partner Oliver Hardy. Digging into his files, Roach pulled out Zenobia's Infidelity, an H.C. Bunner story originally purchased as a vehicle Read More

Flat Foot Stooges

Synopsis: As in their earlier False Alarms (1936), the Three Stooges play firemen in this two-reel farce directed by comedian Charley Chase. The engine company in question is somewhat old fashioned and employs horse-powered engines. In an effort to upgrade the equipment, a salesman mistakenly fuels his Read More

Hotel Haywire

Actors: Leo Carrillo, Mary Carlisle, Lynne Overman, George Barbier, Spring Byington

Synopsis: The inimitable Preston Sturges originally scripted Hotel Haywire with George Burns and Gracie Allen in mind, but by the time the film went before the cameras, the Burns and Allen roles had been recast with Benny Baker and Colette Lyons -- and significantly abbreviated in the process. A dentist Read More

Sing, Cowboy, Sing

Actors: Tex Ritter, Louise Stanley, Karl Hackett, Charles King

Synopsis: Singing cowboy Tex Ritter once again battled the ornery Charles King in this average music Western from poverty row company Grand National. The usually so jovial Robert McKenzie joined King this time, playing mean Judge Roy Dean and conspiring to take over the Summer's Freight Line. Passing Read More

Every Day's a Holiday

Actors: Mae West, Edmund Lowe, Charles Butterworth, Charles Winninger, Walter Catlett, Lloyd Nolan

Synopsis: Paramount spent a record one million dollars on its 1937 Mae West vehicle Every Day's a Holiday. La West portrays a turn-of-century confidence trickster who poses as a famous French chanteuse to avoid arrest. In this guise, she manages to expose crooked police chief Lloyd Nolan and smooths the Read More

Forlorn River

Actors: Larry "Buster" Crabbe, June Martel, John Patterson, Harvey Stephens, Chester Conklin

Synopsis: Paramount's "Zane Grey" series continued rolling onward with 1937's Forlorn River. Larry "Buster" Crabbe, a regular in the Grey films, stars as Nevada, who in the company of his sidekick Weary Pierce (Sid Saylor) searches high and low for the outlaw gang run by Les Setter (Harvey Stephens). It's Read More

Modern Times

Actors: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Chester Conklin

Synopsis: This episodic satire of the Machine Age is considered Charles Chaplin's last "silent" film, although Chaplin uses sound, vocal, and musical effects throughout. Chaplin stars as an assembly-line worker driven insane by the monotony of his job. After a long spell in an asylum, he searches for work Read More

The Preview Murder Mystery

Actors: Reginald Denny, Frances Drake, Gail Patrick, Ian Keith

Synopsis: It's a black night in Hollywood when matinee idol Neil DuBeck (Rod LaRoque) is murdered at the preview of his latest film. Director E. Gordon Smith (Ian Keith), who has long harbored a deep hatred for DuBeck, is the main suspect -- until he too is killed, along with a movie-studio watchman (Spencer Charters Read More

Call of the Prairie

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, James Ellison, Muriel Evans, George "Gabby" Hayes, Chester Conklin, Al Hill

Synopsis: Hopalong Cassidy's young sidekick, Johnny Nelson, is falsely accused of robbing the Bar 20 in this the fourth installment of the long-running Western series. Nelson (James Ellison) had left the ranch in high dudgeon over a perceived slight and fallen in with a gang headed by Shanghai (George Read More

Hallelujah, I'm a Bum

Actors: Al Jolson, Madge Evans, Frank Morgan, Harry Langdon, Chester Conklin

Synopsis: Al Jolson's "comeback" picture Hallelujah, I'm a Bum is an offbeat Depression-era concoction with script by Ben Hecht and S.N. Behrmann and music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Jolson plays a genial hobo who wanders happily around Central Park, neither seeking nor accepting honest Read More

Her Majesty Love

Actors: Marilyn Miller, Ben Lyon, W.C. Fields, Ford Sterling, Leon Errol

Synopsis: In this musical comedy, Fred Von Wellingen (Ben Lyon), the scion of a wealthy German family, has fallen in love with Lia Toerrek (Marilyn Miller), a poor but beautiful girl who has gladly agreed to marry him. However, when Fred's father Otmar (Ford Sterling) decides to hold a banquet to celebrate Read More

The Love Trader

Actors: Leatrice Joy, Chester Conklin, Henry B. Walthall, Noah Beery, Sr., Barbara Bedford

Synopsis: "East is East, West is West, Never the Twain Shall Meet." That's the lesson to be learned in the low-budget exotic romance The Love Trader. Leatrice Joy plays the restless young wife of an elderly ship's captain (Henry B. Walthall). While her husband goes on a pearl-hunting expedition in the South Read More

Swing High

Actors: Helen Twelvetrees, Fred Scott, Dorothy Burgess, John Sheehan, Daphne Pollard

Synopsis: Advertised as an "all star" film, Swing High is hardly that: The biggest name in the picture, both in terms of popularity and sheer marquee space, was Helen Twelvetrees. A variation of the 1926 German classic Variety, the film casts Twelvetrees and Dorothy Burgess as sisters Maryan and Trixie, a Read More

Stairs of Sand

Actors: Wallace Beery, Jean Arthur, Chester Conklin, Phillips Holmes, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: The gruff but lovable Wallace Beery starred in this Zane Grey adaptation from Paramount. He plays the prototype outlaw with a Heart of Gold, sacrificing his own life for the happiness of two young people in love. The young lovers were played by relative newcomers Jean Arthur and Phillips Holmes. Read More

The Virginian

Actors: Gary Cooper, Walter Huston, Richard Arlen, Mary Brian, Chester Conklin, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: Gary Cooper, as a lanky Wyoming ranch and foreman, places his gun on a poker table after being insulted by one of the gamblers and intones, "If you want to call me that . . . smile." That much quoted line's origin is in this early sound version of the Owen Wister novel, The Virginian, directed by Victor Fleming Read More

The Studio Murder Mystery

Actors: Neil Hamilton, Chester Conklin, Warner Oland, Florence Eldridge, Guy Oliver

Synopsis: The newly constructed Paramount sound stages were used as a backdrop for the Pirandellian thriller The Studio Murder Mystery. Fredric March stars as Richard Hardell, a silent-screen idol whose transition to talkies is threatened by his inability to remember his lines. Driven to distraction Read More

Seven Footprints to Satan

Actors: Louise Fazenda, Thelma Todd, Creighton Hale, Chester Conklin, Sheldon Lewis, William V. Mong, DeWitt Jennings, Dale Fuller

Synopsis: In this curious film, a knickknack collector falls in love with the daughter of a jewel collector. When a rare stone is swiped from a reception at the latter's home, the daughter and her sweetheart begin looking for it. As they drive to the police, they are taken upon a most circuitous path until Read More

Show of Shows

Synopsis: Basically a filmed vaudeville presentation, The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' entry in the "all star, all talking, all singing and all dancing" sweepstakes of 1929. Though slightly better than MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929, the Warners entry pales in comparison to Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 Read More

Sunset Pass

Actors: Jack Holt, Nora Lane, John Loder, Chester Conklin

Synopsis: Filmed at glorious locations on the Navajo reservation at Tuba City and in Flagstaff, AZ, this Zane Grey adaptation stars square-jawed Jack Holt as a lawman going undercover to ferret out a notorious cattle rustler. In his second American film, aristocratic British actor John Loder plays the Read More

Marquis Preferred

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Nora Lane, Chester Conklin, Lucille Powers

Synopsis: Adolphe Menjou's final silent film was the imitation-Lubitsch Marquis Preferred. Characteristically dressed up like a million dollars (before taxes), Menjou is cast as the Marquis D'Argenville, a dapper but impoverished nobleman. Hoping for a quick financial turnover, the Marquis agrees to wed Read More

Fast Company

Actors: Evelyn Brent, Jack Oakie, Sam Hardy, Gwen Lee

Synopsis: This comedy chronicles the rise of a country rube who becomes a baseball legend for the New York Yankees. Not only does he help the team win the World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he also beats a group of gangsters all by himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Varsity

Actors: Charles Rogers, Mary Brian, Chester Conklin, Phillips Holmes

Synopsis: Charles Rogers and Mary Brian, Paramount Pictures' cutest couple, are starred in the collegiate drama Varsity. Amazingly, the film does not include a football game, or even a football team. The story concerns the romance between college boy Jimmy Duffy (Arlen) and carnival girl Fay (Mary Brian). Read More

The Big Noise

Actors: Chester Conklin, Alice White, Bodil Rosing, Sam Hardy, Jack Egan

Synopsis: Comic Chester Conklin stars in this sparkling comedy directed by Allan Dwan. John Sloval (Conklin), a New York City transit security officer, would love to see his daughter Sophie (Alice White) marry Philip Hurd (Sam Hardy), who works at a Coney Island concession stand. But Sophie is in love with Read More

Fools for Luck

Actors: W.C. Fields, Chester Conklin, Sally Blane, Jack Luden, Mary Alden

Synopsis: W.C. Fields' last silent film reteams him with walrus-mustached comedian Chester Conklin. Schemer Richard Whitehead (Fields) hopes to talk Samuel Hunter (Conklin), the town's richest man, into investing in an oil field. The two partners soon learn to their chagrin that their wells went dry years Read More

Taxi 13

Actors: Chester Conklin, Martha Sleeper, Ethel Wales, Lee Moran

Synopsis: One of the first sound releases from FBO pictures (no dialogue, but plenty of music), Taxi 13 stars Chester Conklin in his customary screen guise as an overworked cab driver. With a wife and ten kids to support, hackie Angus MacTavish (Conklin) needs $100 so that he can buy a new cab. When his old Read More

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Actors: Ruth Taylor, Alice White, Ford Sterling, Holmes Herbert, Mack Swain

Synopsis: The present unavailability of 1928's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is especially frustrating for those who'd like to compare this first version of the classic Anita Loos comic novel to the 1953 Marilyn Monroe-Jane Russell remake. The blonde in question is Miss Lorelei Lee, a dumb-like-a-fox golddigger Read More

Tillie's Punctured Romance

Actors: W.C. Fields, Chester Conklin, Mack Swain, Louise Fazenda

The Haunted House

Actors: Chester Conklin, Flora Finch, Edmund Breese, Larry Kent, Barbara Bedford

Synopsis: This nonsensical comedy-melodrama was a vehicle for two relics from the dawn of cinema history, walrus-mustached Chester Conklin and scrawny Flora Finch. A parody of the "old dark house" melodramas then in vogue, the film is chock full of hidden rooms, sliding panels and clutching hands. Convinced Read More

Tell It to Sweeney

Actors: Chester Conklin, George Bancroft, Jack Luden, Doris Hill

Synopsis: Played by William H. Tooker, railroad superintendent Old Man Sweeney is but a peripheral character in this film, despite its title. George Bancroft is cast as burly railroad engineer Cannonball Casey, who falls in love with Dorie (Doris Hill), the daughter of rival engineer Luke Beamish (Chester Conklin Read More

Cabaret

Actors: Gilda Gray, Tom Moore, Chester Conklin, Mona Palma, Jack Egan

Synopsis: A nightclub dancer is torn between two men -- a tough detective and an unscrupulous gangster -- in this rather lurid silent melodrama starring one of the icons of the era, "shimmy" dancer Gilda Gray. Miss Gray's kid brother Andy (Jack Egan) has fallen in with gangster Sam Roberts (Charles Byer) Read More

We're in the Navy Now

Actors: Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, Chester Conklin, Tom Kennedy, Donald Keith

Synopsis: A follow-up to the enormously successful Behind the Front, We're in the Navy Now reteams the stars of the earlier film, Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton. Beery plays dimwitted boxer Knockout Hannigan, while Hatton is his larcenous manager Stinkey Smith. KO'ed during a preliminary bout, Hannigan Read More

Mcfadden's Flats

Actors: Charlie Murray, Chester Conklin, Edna Murphy, Larry Kent, Aggie Herring

Synopsis: Based on the once-popular "musical extravaganza" of the same name, McFadden's Flats is a serviceable vehicle for Keystone Studio veterans Charlie Murray and Chester Conklin. The stars are respectively cast as boisterous Irishman Dan McFadden and stingy Scotchman Jock MacTavish, eternally bickering Read More

Two Flaming Youths

Actors: W.C. Fields, Chester Conklin, Mary Brian, Jack Luden, George Irving

Synopsis: Although the silent W.C. Fields vehicle Two Flaming Youths no longer exists, a surviving script (titled Side Show) offers a tantalizing peek at this long-lost effort. Fields is cast as Gabby Gilfoil, owner of "Gilfoil's Nonpareil Circus," a dog-and-pony operation that must forever stay one step Read More

Rubber Heels

Actors: Ed Wynn, Chester Conklin, Thelma Todd

Synopsis: Following the example of his Ziegfeld Follies cohorts Eddie Cantor and W.C. Fields, Ed Wynn tried his luck with the movies in 1927's Rubber Heels. Wynn is cast as would-be detective Amos Wart, bound and determined to retrieve the stolen crown jewels of the beautiful Princess Aline (Thelma Todd). Read More

Duchess of Buffalo

Actors: Constance Talmadge, Tullio Carminatti, Edward Martindel, Rose Dione, Chester Conklin

Synopsis: Constance Talmadge's sole 1926 effort was the forgettable comedy The Duchess of Buffalo. Set in a country that seems to be Russia, the story gets under way when Lieutenant Vladimir Orloff (Tulio Carminati) falls in love with American chorus girl Marian Duncan (Constance Talmadge). Likewise Read More

Fascinating Youth

Actors: Ivy Harris, Mona Palma

Synopsis: Fascinating Youth was designed as a showcase for the winners of Paramount's Junior Star contest of 1926. Newcomer Charles "Buddy" Rogers heads the cast as Teddy Ward, the son of a wealthy hotelier (Ralph Lewis). Disturbed by Teddy's hedonistic lifestyle, Ward Sr. orders the boy to take over Read More

Say It Again

Actors: Richard Dix, Alyce Mills, Chester Conklin, "Gunboat" Smith, Bernard Randall

Synopsis: Injured in a small European kingdom during a revolution, American soldier-of-fortune Bob Howard (Richard Dix) lies in a hospital bed, his face swathed with bandages. Assuming that Bob is her country's long-lost prince, Princess Eleana (Alyce Mills) nurses him back to health. So long as Bob's Read More

A Social Celebrity

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Louise Brooks, Elsie Lawson, Roger Davis, Hugh Huntley

Synopsis: Originally, Louise Brooks was only supposed to have a supporting role in this comedy-drama starring Adolphe Menjou. Partway through filming, however, Menjou's co-star Greta Nissen dropped out and Brooks' role was rewritten and expanded. It was only her third film. Menjou is Max Haber, a barber in Read More

Behind the Front

Actors: Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, Mary Brian, Hayden Stevenson

Synopsis: Behind the Front is a raucous silent vehicle for Paramount's Mutt-and-Jeff comedy team of Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton. The film begins during the early months of World War I; myopic detective Beery chases pickpocket Hatton into an "enlistment" party held by pretty socialite Mary Brian. The Read More

The Wilderness Woman

Actors: Aileen Pringle, Lowell Sherman, Chester Conklin, Henry Vibart, Robert Cain

Synopsis: Aileen Pringle tackles a dual role in the comedy actioner Wilderness Woman. Actually, both heroines -- hoydenish Junie and sophisticated Juneau MacLean -- are the same person. Here's the lowdown: Junie, the hard-fightin', hard-drinkin' daughter of cantankerous Alaska gold miner Kodiak MacLean (Chester Conklin Read More

Midnight Lovers

Actors: Chester Conklin, John Roche, Gale Henry, Lewis Stone, Anna Q. Nilsson

Synopsis: Based on the stage play Collusion, Midnight Lovers stars Anna Q. Nilsson as the young wife of WWI flying ace Lewis Stone. After an exquisite honeymoon, Stone is called off to the battlefield. Nilsson returns home, where she is confronted with evidence of her new husband's infidelity. Unwilling to Read More

The Nervous Wreck

Actors: Harrison Ford, Phyllis Haver, Chester Conklin, Mack Swain, Hobart Bosworth

Synopsis: Harrison Ford (no, not that Harrison Ford) plays a hypochondriac who heads to an Arizona health farm to regain his strength. En route, he meets pert Phyllis Haver, engaged to marry the sheriff in the western community where Ford is headed. She hitches a ride-an innocent gesture that leads to a Read More

The Phantom of the Opera

Actors: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland

Synopsis: Lon Chaney stars as Erik, the Phantom, in what is probably his most famous and certainly his most horrifying role. Produced by Universal, the film shot in 1923 and shelved for nearly two years, and was subjected to intensive studio tinkering. While many expected a disaster, the film turned out to Read More

The Winding Stair

Actors: Alma Rubens, Edmund Lowe, Warner Oland, Mahlon Hamilton, Emily Fitzroy

Synopsis: Adapted from a novel by Julian LaMothe, The Winding Stair stars Edmund Lowe as Paul, a fearless French Foreign Legion officer. Ordered to quell a native uprising at a far-away outpost, he discovers that the revolt is actually a subterfuge hatched by the Arabs, so that the city under Paul's command Read More

Where Was I?

Actors: Reginald Denny, Marian Nixon, Pauline Garon, Lee Moran, Tyrone Power

Synopsis: During the 1920s, Reginald Denny was popular in pictures for portraying all-American young men (this changed after the sound era revealed his British accent). He plays Thomas Berford, who inherited his father's business and has made a huge success of it. The only competitor who remains uncowed is Read More

Woman of the World

Actors: Pola Negri, Charles Emmett Mack, Holmes Herbert, Blanche Mehaffey, Chester Conklin

Synopsis: This sophisticated and well-made comedy-drama was one of Pola Negri's best vehicles for Paramount. More often than not, the studio seemed at a loss with what to do with the exotic European star. By placing her in the completely incongruous setting of a small American town (and having Malcolm St. Read More

My Neighbor's Wife

Actors: E.K. Lincoln, Helen Ferguson, Edwards Davis, Herbert Rawlinson, William Russell

Synopsis: Jack Newberry (E.K. Lincoln) is the millionaire's son who tries to become a Hollywood filmmaker in this melodrama. His father advances him $40,000 to make the picture with the understanding the feature must make a profit. The feature takes several comic looks at the industry, with William Russell Read More

One Year to Live

Actors: Aileen Pringle, Dorothy Mackaill, Sam de Grasse, Rosemary Theby, Leo White

Synopsis: Dr. Lucien LaPierre (Sam de Grasse) desperately wants to marry Elise Duchanier, the maid to a Parisian burlesque star (Aileen Pringle). She falls ill, and to keep her by his side, he tells her that she only has a year to live. Instead of making Elise a homebody, it inspires her to make a stab at Read More

Under the Rouge

Actors: Eileen Percy, Tom Moore, Eddie Phillips, James Mason, Claire de Lorez

Synopsis: This melodrama about the moral redemption of two crooks stars Eileen Pearcy and Tom Moore. Whitey (Moore) goes from being a war hero to a crook. He earns the admiration of Kitty, a fellow crook (Pearcy), when he saves her from the advances of Mal (James Mason). She goes to the country to recover Read More

The Great Love

Synopsis: The mercurial Marshal Neilan warmed the director's chair for the 1925 comedy The Great Love. Robert Agnew plays a small-town doctor who takes care of an ailing circus elephant. Once cured, the pachyderm refuses to leave Agnew's side! Everything turns out OK when the elephant aids in the rescue of Read More

Fire Patrol

Actors: Anna Q. Nilsson, Dick Brandon, Jack Richardson, Gale Henry

Synopsis: This seafaring melodrama was based on the Harkins and Barber stage play by the same name. His ship capsized in a storm, Captain John Ferguson, his wife, Mary (Anna Q. Nilsson), and their little boy are picked up by a pirate ship manned by the brutal Butch Anderson (Jack Richardson). Anderson Read More

Battling Bunyan

Actors: Wesley Barry, Molly Malone

Synopsis: Bunyan (Wesley Barry, who was too old for former child roles, but too young to be a credible adult) works as a garage mechanic and his sweetheart, Molly Coshgan (Molly Malone), also works there. When Johnny Prentiss, the lightweight champion (Johnny Relasco), comes into the garage and starts Read More

North of Nevada

Synopsis: When old rancher Mark Ridgeway (Josef Swickard) passes away, his property goes to relatives in the East instead of to trusted foreman Tom Taylor (Fred Thomson) as promised. The relatives, Reginald (Taylor Graves) and his sister Marion (Hazel Keener), arrive to take over the ranch, and Tom quickly Read More

Galloping Fish

Actors: Louise Fazenda, Sidney Chaplin, Ford Sterling, Chester Conklin, John Steppling

Synopsis: A trained seal stole the limelight in this silent farce produced by Thomas H. Ince. Sydney Chaplin, brother of Charlie, starred as newlywed Freddy Wetherill, whose child-bride, Hyla (Lucille Ricksen), sends him packing after a quarrel. Freddy takes up with Undine (Louise Fazenda), "The Diving Read More

Another Man's Wife

Actors: James Kirkwood, Lila Lee, Wallace Beery, Matt Moore

Synopsis: Real-life husband and wife James Kirkwood and Lila Lee play Mr. and Mrs. in Another Man's Wife. Neglected by her husband, Lee pretends to desert him in order to win him back. This she does, but not before she and Kirkwood have gotten themselves entangled with various and sundry antagonists Read More

Greed

Actors: Gibson Gowland, ZaSu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Chester Conklin, Sylvia Ashton

Synopsis: Frank Norris' powerful Zola-esque novel McTeague was first filmed in 1915. While filmmaker Erich Von Stroheim would insist that he'd been enthralled by the book since it first came out in 1902, it is more likely that he didn't make the novel's acquaintance until seeing that 1915 film. Whatever the Read More

Anna Christie

Actors: Blanche Sweet, William Russell, George F. Marion, Eugénie Besserer

Synopsis: In this silent drama based on the play by Eugene O'Neill, Blanche Sweet plays Anna Christie, a young woman whose father Chris (George F. Marion) is a sailor and knows enough of the life of seafaring men to be certain that he doesn't want his daughter to become involved with one. Hoping to guide Read More

Desire

Actors: Marguerite de la Motte, John Bowers, Estelle Taylor, David Butler, Walter Long

Synopsis: Madalyn Harlan (Estelle Taylor), the daughter of wealthy socialites, falls in love with the chauffeur Jerry Ryan (David Butler) in this uneven society drama. She and Jerry are secretly married, but Jerry's mother tells Madalyn that Jerry is through with her. She takes poison in the cabaret that Read More

Souls for Sale

Actors: Eleanor Boardman, Mae Busch, Barbara La Marr, Richard Dix, Frank Mayo

Synopsis: This comedy-melodrama, based on the novel by Rupert Hughes (who also directed), blends fiction and reality to tell the story of a young woman's rise in Hollywood; the film uses real stars and productions (even Charles Chaplin filming A Woman of Paris) as its backdrop. Eleanor Boardman plays Read More

Mack Sennett Comedies: Vol. 1

Synopsis: This anthology is comprised of several short chucklers from the King of Slapstick comedy Mack Sennett. These shorts feature Ben Turpin and those crazy Keystone Cops. The titles include: The Eyes Have It, The Cannon Ball, The Desperate Scoundrel and Pride of Pikeville. A second volume follows. Read More

A Pullman Bride

Love, Speed and Thrills

Synopsis: Love, Speed and Thrills is about a loving husband and a wife-stealing wolf, both after the same woman. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

A Hash House Fraud

The Cannon Ball

Keystone Comedies, Vol. 6

The Lizzies of Mack Sennett

Mabel's Strange Predicament

Mabel's Busy Day

Synopsis: Charlie Chaplin's 18th film for Keystone was likely co-written and co-directed by co-star Mabel Normand. It was shot entirely on location at an automobile racetrack during a racing event. Mabel plays a hot dog vendor who sneaks in to the track by bribing the cop who guards the gate. As soon as she Read More

Mabel at the Wheel

Actors: Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Chester Conklin, Mack Sennett, Harry McCoy

Synopsis: Mabel Normand wrote, directed and starred in Charlie Chaplin's 10th film for Keystone. After disagreements with the directors of his previous films, Sennett assigned him to Normand, but Chaplin was chomping at the bit to direct his own films so for this film at least, the Chaplin/Normand Read More

Making a Living

Synopsis: This typical Keystone slapstick comedy was Charlie Chaplin's first appearance on film. An Englishman (Chaplin) cons a newspaper reporter (Henry Lehrman) out of some money. The Englishman flirts with a young woman who later turns out to be the reporter's girlfriend, and the reporter and the Read More

Twenty Minutes of Love

Synopsis: Charlie Chaplin once said, "All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl." In this, his 11th film for Keystone and arguably his first original screenplay, his milieu is just that -- Westlake Park, where most of the Keystone park films were shot. The Tramp makes fun of a Read More

Those Love Pangs

Actors: Charles Chaplin, Chester Conklin, Gene Marsh, Cecile Arnold, Vivian Edwards

Synopsis: Charlie Chaplin's 28th Keystone comedy pits him against Chester Conklin as rival for the attentions of their landlady Gene Marsh and for Chester's girlfriend Cecile Arnold. After the midday meal, each of the rivals tries to chat up the landlady, only to be prevented by the other. They decide to go Read More

The Masquerader

Synopsis: Charlie Chaplin's 24th short for the Keystone company is a film about making films at Keystone. It is unusual in that we see Chaplin the actor, Charlie the Tramp, and Chaplin's second female impersonation in a film. The film opens outside the Keystone Studio where Chaplin, in street clothes, is Read More

Gentlemen of Nerve

Synopsis: Charlie Chaplin's 30th Keystone comedy is again set at the auto races, as were his earlier films, Kid's Auto Race, Mabel at the Wheel and Mabel's Busy Day. However this time, as Chaplin scholar Harry Geduld suggests, it was likely shot at the Keystone studios with shots of the race intercut. Read More

Tango Tangles

Actors: Charles Chaplin, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Ford Sterling, Edgar Kennedy, Chester Conklin

Synopsis: Tango Tangles is an impromptu Keystone comedy which exploited the current "tango craze." A tango contest and exhibition prompted Mack Sennett to send a crew out to a local dance hall where some of the film was shot. Charlie Chaplin appears in a tuxedo, sans the famous Tramp makeup and costume, as Read More

Dough and Dynamite

Actors: Fritz Schade

Synopsis: Charlie Chaplin's 29th comedy for Keystone was one of his most popular, grossing $130,000 in its initial year of release. It was shot before, but released after Those Love Pangs, and was originally conceived as an early sequence of the latter, showing Charlie and Chester Conklin at work in a Read More

Tillie's Punctured Romance

Actors: Marie Dressler, Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett, Mack Swain

Synopsis: This Keystone comedy, Charlie Chaplin's 33rd, is the first feature-length comedy ever made and contributed to making Chaplin and his co-star Marie Dressler major stars. Chaplin plays a con artist (not the Tramp) who talks Tillie, an innocent country lass, into taking her father's savings and Read More

Between Showers

Actors: Charles Chaplin, Ford Sterling, Emma Clifton, Chester Conklin, Sadie Lampe

Synopsis: In his fourth film for Keystone, Charlie Chaplin was assigned for the last time to Henry Lehrman, his first director at Keystone. It was Chaplin's first film with the ostensible star of the film, Ford Sterling, who had announced that he would be leaving Keystone for a more lucrative deal well Read More

The Face on the Bar Room Floor

Synopsis: The Face on the Bar-Room Floor, Charlie Chaplin's 22nd Keystone comedy, was based on a well-known poem by Hugh Antoine D'Arcy, "The Face Upon the Floor." The film begins in a saloon where Charlie, a destitute Tramp, is bumming drinks. He offers to tell the story of his downfall to the other Read More

Cruel, Cruel Love

Actors: Charles Chaplin, Minta Durfee

Synopsis: In his eighth film for Keystone Charlie Chaplin, in frock coat and bushy mustache, is cast in the role of a melodramatic lover who attempts suicide over his lost love. The film is a farce, a parody of the overacted melodramas of the day. Mr. Dovey (Chaplin) is first seen on his knees proposing in Read More

Caught in a Cabaret

Synopsis: Charlie Chaplin's 12th film for the Keystone company was also his directorial debut, receiving co-directing credit with co-star, Mabel Normand. Chaplin plays a waiter in a seedy cabaret who is always in trouble with his boss, Edgar Kennedy, and at odds with another waiter, Chester Conklin. While Read More