David TorrenceFilmography

Rulers of the Sea

Actors: Margaret Lockwood, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Will Fyffe, Montagu Love, Vaughan Glaser

Synopsis: In the 1830s, despite the development of the steamboat at the outset of the 19th century, all trans-Atlantic travel was still done by sailing ships. David Gillespie (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is first mate on one of the fastest of such ships, commanded by Captain Oliver (George Bancroft), but he is Read More

Five of a Kind

Synopsis: The financial exploitation of Canada's Dionne Quintuplets rolled ever forward with 20th Century-Fox's Five of a Kind, the third Dionne feature-length vehicle. Under the watchful eye of kindly obstetrican Dr. Dafoe (Jean Hersholt), the lovable quints, now 4 1/2 years old, play with their pets and Read More

Lost Horizon

Actors: Ronald Colman, Edward Everett Horton, H.B. Warner, Jane Wyatt, Sam Jaffe, John Howard, Margo

Synopsis: It took British author James Hilton six weeks to write his visionary novel Lost Horizon. It took director Frank Capra two years-and half of his home studio Columbia's annual budget-to bring it to the screen. After a lengthy preamble, inviting audiences to imagine their own ideas of Utopia, the Read More

Ebb Tide

Actors: Oscar Homolka, Frances Farmer, Ray Milland, Lloyd Nolan, Barry Fitzgerald

Synopsis: Technicolor is the main attraction of this overheated South Seas adventure. Ray Milland, Akim Tamiroff and Barry Fitzgerald play three shifty sailors who commandeer a smallpox-ridden boat and set out to sea. A typhoon washes them ashore on a faraway Pacific island, which is ruled by a white Read More

The Country Doctor

Actors: Jean Hersholt, June Lang, George "Slim" Summerville, Michael Whalen, Dorothy Peterson

Synopsis: The well-publicized (and overexploited) birth of Canada's Dionne Quintuplets in 1934 formed the basis of The Country Doctor. Jean Hersholt starred as Dr. Allan Dafoe, the real-life medico who delivered the famous quints (who appear in person towards the end of the film). The film recounts Dafoe's Read More

Mary of Scotland

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Fredric March, Florence Eldridge, Douglas Walton, John Carradine

Synopsis: Maxwell Anderson's blank-verse play Mary of Scotland was adapted for the screen by Dudley Nichols and directed with a surprising paucity of verve by John Ford. Katharine Hepburn, in one of the "icy" roles that would later earn her the onus of "box office poison", stars as Mary Stuart, who serves Read More

Beloved Enemy

Actors: Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, Karen Morley, Jerome Cowan, David Niven

Synopsis: This lavishly appointed Sam Goldwyn soap opera is set in Ireland during "the troubles." Irish rebel leader Dennis Reardon (Brian Aherne) falls in love with Lady Helen Drummond (Merle Oberon), the aristocratic daughter of British diplomat Lord Athleigh (Henry Stephenson). Reardon's underground Read More

Bonnie Scotland

Actors: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, June Lang, William Janney, Anne Grey

Synopsis: Stanley MacLaurel (Stan Laurel), the American "black sheep" of the MacLaurel clan, stows away on a cattle boat to Scotland in the company of his pal Ollie (Oliver Hardy) so that he can claim his share of his late uncle Angus Ian MacLaurel's fortune. Alas, Stan's inheritance consists of a snuffbox Read More

Captain Blood

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Lionel Atwill, Ross Alexander

Synopsis: When British actor Robert Donat dropped out of Warner Bros. Captain Blood, the studio took a chance on its new contractee, Tasmania-born Errol Flynn. Adapted from the novel by Rafael Sabatini, the film is set during the oppressive reign of King James II. Irish physician Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) Read More

Black Sheep

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Claire Trevor, Tom Brown, Eugene Pallette, Adrienne Ames

Synopsis: The Black Sheep is professional gambler John Dugan (Edmund Lowe), who gets his kicks out of fleecing wealthy suckers during a Transatlantic ocean voyage. But when Dugan sees innocent young Fred Curtis (Tom Brown) being made the fall guy for a jewel robbery, he decides to help the poor boy out. Read More

The Dark Angel

Actors: Fredric March, Merle Oberon, C. Montague Shaw, Charles Tannen, David Torrence, Clare Verdera, Douglas Walton, George Breakston, Colin Campbell, Tom Moore, Louise M. Bates, Roy Darmour, Douglas Gordon, Harold Howard, Albert Russell, Doris Stone, Francis Palmer Tilton, Carl Voss, Herbert Marshall, John Miltern, Vesey O'Davoren, Claud Allister, Jimmy Baxter, Janet Beecher, Jimmy Butler, Robert Carleton, Denis Chaldecott, Fay Chaldecott, Phyllis Coghlan, Cora Sue Collins, Edward Cooper, Henrietta Crosman, Philip Dare, Gunnis Davis, Jack Deery, Vernon P. Downing, Sarah Edwards, Bud Geary, Lawrence Grant, Robert Hale, John Halliday, Sam Harris, Holmes Herbert, Olaf Hytten, Frieda Inescort, Colin Kenny, Claude King, Murdock MacQuarrie

Synopsis: Samuel Goldwyn's The Dark Angel is a sumptuously produced soap opera with a poignant "Enoch Arden" style denouement. Fredric March, Merle Oberon and Herbert Marshall star respectively as Alan Trent, Kitty Vane and Gerald Shannon, friends since childhood. Though Gerald is deeply in love with Kitty Read More

Harmony Lane

Actors: Douglass Montgomery, Evelyn Venable, Adrienne Ames, Joseph Cawthorn, William Frawley

Synopsis: Produced on a reasonably lavish scale by the usually parsimonious Mascot Pictures, Harmony Lane was the first of three filmed biographies of 19th-century songwriter Stephen Foster (the others were Fox's Swanee River [1939] and 1952's I Dream of Jeannie, produced by Mascot's successor, Republic Read More

Mutiny on the Bounty

Actors: Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone, Dudley Digges, Herbert Mundin, Donald Crisp, Eddie Quillan

Synopsis: The 1932 publication of Charles Nordhoff and James Norton Hall's Mutiny on the Bounty sparked a revival of interest in the titular 1789 ship mutiny, and this 1935 MGM movie version won the Oscar for Best Picture. Clark Gable stars as Fletcher Christian, first mate of the infamous HMS Bounty Read More

Mandalay

Actors: Kay Francis, Lyle Talbot, Ricardo Cortez, Warner Oland, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: The official cast list of Warner Bros. Mandalay states that Kay Francis plays a character named Tanya. For most of the film, however, the heroine -- if she can be called that -- goes by the name of Spot White (or "Spot Cash," as she's cynically designated by one of the lesser characters). Betrayed Read More

Charlie Chan in London

Actors: Warner Oland, Drue Leyton, Douglas Walton, Alan Mowbray, Mona Barrie, Ray Milland

Synopsis: Honolulu detective Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) spends an eventful weekend at an English country estate in this fog-bound series entry. Young Neil Howard (Ray Milland) has been accused of murder, but family friend Geoffrey Howard (Alan Mowbray) expresses the hope that Chan will be able to locate Read More

Madame Spy

Actors: Fay Wray, Nils Asther, Edward Arnold, John Miljan, David Torrence

Synopsis: One of several variations of the "Mata Hari" and "Fraulein Doktor" legends, Universal's Madame Spy is set during WW I. Fay Wray stars as Maria, the wife of Austrian diplomat Captain Franck (Nils Asther). What Franck doesn't know is that Maria is a Russian secret agent, assigned to spy on her own Read More

What Every Woman Knows

Actors: Helen Hayes, Brian Aherne, Madge Evans, Lucile Watson, Dudley Digges

Synopsis: Legendary "improvisational" director Gregory La Cava elected to stick to the script for his film version of the James M. Barrie play What Every Woman Knows. Helen Hayes repeats her stage role as a Victorian Scotswoman of far-reaching ambition. Using her supposedly frail feminine wiles, Hayes Read More

Jane Eyre

Actors: Virginia Bruce, Colin Clive, Beryl Mercer, Jameson Thomas, Aileen Pringle

Synopsis: This version of the Charlotte Bronte classic is the first to use sound. The story closely follows the book as it chronicles the romantic travails of a troubled orphan girl who grows up to be a governess in love with her employer who returns her affections. She has finally found happiness. Alas Read More

Cavalcade

Actors: Diana Wynyard, Clive Brook, Una O'Connor, Herbert Mundin, Ursula Jeans, Beryl Mercer

Synopsis: The only Academy Award winning picture for Fox Studios (in its pre-20th Century-Fox era), Cavalcade is a stately film adaptation of the pageant-like stage hit by Noel Coward. The film concentrates on the years 1901 through 1933, as seen through the eyes of an upper-class British family and its Read More

Queen Christina

Actors: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone, Elisabeth Young

Synopsis: If Queen Christina is not the best of Greta Garbo's films (as many Garbo fanatics insist), it is certainly the most luxuriously romantic of her talkie features. The star is cast as 17th-century Swedish queen Christina, who feels that she can best function in a male-dominated world by adopting Read More

Horseplay

Actors: George "Slim" Summerville, Andy Devine, Leila Hyams, May Beatty, Una O'Connor

Synopsis: In this comedy, two rubes from Montana find a fortune after they discover radium on their ranch. The nouveau riche ranchers then take a trip to England to see one of their girlfriends whose father sent her to stay with her blue-blooded relatives to keep her away from the red-necked country boy. As Read More

Voltaire

Actors: George Arliss, Doris Kenyon, Margaret Lindsay, Theodore Newton, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: The life and times of one of France's most influential authors and philosophers receives the romantic treatment from director John G. Adolphi. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Masquerader

Actors: Ronald Colman, Elissa Landi, Julie Compton, Halliwell Hobbes, David Torrence

Synopsis: In an interesting precursor to his later vehicle The Prisoner of Zenda, Ronald Colman essays a dual role in Goldwyn's The Masquerader. Colman is cast as Member of Parliament Sir John Chilcote and his identical cousin, a newspaper journalist also named John. A mean-spirited alcoholic and drug Read More

Berkeley Square

Actors: Leslie Howard, Heather Angel, Valerie Taylor, Irene Browne, Beryl Mercer, Alan Mowbray

Synopsis: Adapted from John Balderston's successful stage fantasy (itself based on a story by Henry James), Berkeley Square is the story of a modern-day London scientist (Leslie Howard), who is romantically fascinated by the 18th century. A freak accident propels Howard back to 1784, where he assumes the Read More

A Successful Calamity

Actors: George Arliss, Mary Astor, Evelyn Knapp, Grant Mitchell, David Torrence

Synopsis: Veteran stage and screen star George Arliss forsakes his biographical roles for domestic comedy in A Successful Calamity. Arliss plays an elderly millionaire saddled with a selfish young second wife (Mary Astor) and a pair of spoiled grown children (William Janney and Evelyn Knapp). To test his Read More

The Mask of Fu Manchu

Actors: Boris Karloff, Lewis Stone, Karen Morley, Charles Starrett, Myrna Loy

Synopsis: Boris Karloff stars as the villainous Dr. Fu Manchu in this wild and wooly -- and wildly racist -- adventure yarn, based on Sax Rohmer's fiction about the personification of the "yellow peril." Sir Nayland Smith (Lewis Stone) of the British Secret Service recruits Sir Lionel Barton (Lawrence Read More

Smilin' Through

Actors: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Leslie Howard, O.P. Heggie, Ralph Forbes

Synopsis: Director Sidney Franklin originally adapted Jane Murfin and Jane Cowl's play Smilin' Through for the silver screen in a 1922 silent film starring Norma Talmadge and (the other) Harrison Ford. Remaking his own film, Franklin directed Norma Shearer in this 1932 talkie. Leslie Howard plays John Read More

River's End

Actors: Charles Bickford, Evelyn Knapp, David Torrence, ZaSu Pitts

Synopsis: The second of three versions of James Oliver Curwood's pulp fiction drama of a mountie and his separated-at-birth prey stars Charles Bickford as both Sgt. Conniston and accused murderer John Keith. The latter is persuaded to prove his innocence by impersonating his captor, who has conveniently Read More

Five Star Final

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Marian Marsh, H.B. Warner, Anthony Bushell, George E. Stone

Synopsis: Adapted from the stage play by former newspaperman Louis Weitzenkorn, Five Star Final is an uncompromising look at the consequences of journalistic irresponsibility. Hounded by his publishers to pep up circulation with a sensational story, newspaper editor Edward G. Robinson decides to revive Read More

The Bachelor Father

Actors: Marion Davies, Ralph Forbes, C. Aubrey Smith, Ray Milland, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

Synopsis: Edward Childs Carpenter's stock-company perennial Bachelor Father was reshaped as a Marion Davies vehicle in 1931. Davies plays Tony Flagg, one of the three grown children of ageing roue Sir Basil Winterton (C. Aubrey Smith). Tony and her siblings Geoffrey Trent (Ray Milland) and Maria Credaro (Nena Quartero Read More

East Lynne

Actors: Ann Harding, Clive Brook, Conrad Nagel, Cecilia Loftus, Beryl Mercer

Synopsis: Whenever a vaudeville comic of the 1920s wanted to get a quick laugh, he'd announce to his audience "Next Week: East Lynne." To many playgoers, this hoary stage adaptation of Mrs. Henry Wood's 1861 novel represented the height of Victorian nonesuch. Still, there were several silent film versions Read More

Scotland Yard

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Joan Bennett, Lumsden Hare, Barbara Leonard, Donald Crisp

Synopsis: Dakin Barrolles (played by Edmund Lowe is a criminal who, while escaping from a bank robbery that went wrong, stumbles across a famous banker, Sir John Lasher, and his wife, Xandra. Lasher is deep in his cups, and neither he nor Xandra notice when Barrolles absconds with one of their possessions Read More

Raffles

Actors: Ronald Colman, Kay Francis, David Torrence, Frances Dade, Alison Skipworth, Bramwell Fletcher

Synopsis: The third in a succession of film adaptations of author E.W. Hornung's novel Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman, this version was the first to also be produced in sound. Ronald Colman stars as A.J. Raffles, an utterly unflappable British gentleman cricket player who by night is secretly a thief known Read More

The Devil to Pay

Actors: Ronald Colman, Loretta Young, Florence Britton, Frederick Kerr, David Torrence

Synopsis: Ronald Colman plays the "black sheep" of a wealthy British family, sent to South Africa so that he'll be as far away from home as possible. Broke again, Colman auctions off his belongings and heads for London to the less-than-open arms of his father (Frederick Kerr). He begins to dally with a Read More

City Girl

Actors: Charles Farrell, David Torrence

Synopsis: Director F.W. Murnau began City Girl as a silent film, hoping to match the artistic triumph of his earlier Sunrise. Murnau was frustrated by two elements: Fox's decision to hastily convert the film into a talkie, and his inability to secure the services of Sunrise star Janet Gaynor. The director Read More

Disraeli

Actors: George Arliss, Joan Bennett, Florence Arliss, Anthony Bushell, David Torrence

Synopsis: In the early days of sound film, one of Warner Bros.' big box-office draws was the aging stage actor George Arliss and, in Disraeli, Arliss scored his biggest box-office hit. He is at his best as the foxy British prime minister (in a role he created on-stage and re-created earlier in a 1921 silent Read More

The Black Watch

Actors: Victor McLaglen, Myrna Loy, David Rollins, Roy D'Arcy, Lumsden Hare, Walter Long

Synopsis: In this early talkie from director John Ford, a Scottish captain and his regiment are sent to India during WW I and assigned to quell a native uprising in the Northern mountains. Unfortunately, soon after arriving, he gets drunk and seemingly kills another officer during a barroom fight. He Read More

Strong Boy

Actors: Victor McLaglen, Leatrice Joy, John Farrell MacDonald, Clyde Cook, Kent Sanderson

Synopsis: In this comedy drama, an enormous baggage handler earns the reputation of being an all-'round good joe and soon gets promoted. He is in love with Joy, a pretty newsstand girl. Despite his good work, which includes stopping a train robbery, she realizes that her lovable lug will never rise to Read More

Untamed Justice

Actors: Virginia Brown Faire, Gaston Glass, David Torrence, Philo McCullough, Sheldon Lewis

Synopsis: A horse and a dog play the lead roles in this inexpensive silent Western produced and directed by Harry S. Webb. Virginia Browne Faire is falsely accused of bond theft and is cleared by a handsome air mail pilot (Gaston Glass) and the aforementioned four-legged thespians. The premiere production Read More

Silks and Saddles

Actors: Marian Nixon, Richard Walling, Mary Nolan, Otis Harlan, Claire McDowell

Synopsis: The racetrack provides the setting of this drama that tells the tale of a jockey who throws a race to impress a sexy girl. Later, the jockey redeems himself to his former employer and the boss's daughter, who has loyally loved him all along, by riding a dangerously spirited horse that no one else Read More

Hearts in Exile

Actors: Dolores Costello, Grant Withers, James Kirkwood, George Fawcett, David Torrence

Synopsis: In this romance set in Russia, a fisherman's daughter is jilted by her true love and instead marries a baron. Time passes and the two men meet each other in Siberia where they have both been exiled. When the poorer man has the opportunity to come home, he changes places with the baron so that he Read More

On the Stroke of Twelve

Actors: David Torrence, June Marlowe, Lloyd Whitlock, Danny O'Shea, Charles H. West

Synopsis: Not to be confused with 1924's On the Stroke of Three, this 1928 actioner (based loosely on a play by Joseph LeBrandt) was another entry in the then-popular "aviation" cycle -- but only for a couple of reels. Falsely accused of murdering his father David Torrence, hero Danny O'Shea is forced to Read More

Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come

Actors: Molly O'Day, Nelson McDowell, Martha Mattox, Victor Potel

Synopsis: Kentucky Courage was the second film version of John Fox Jr.'s 1903 novel The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come. Richard Barthelmess stars as Chad Buford, a sensitive Kentucky farm boy who escapes his sadistic guardian Nathan Cherry (Gustav von Seyfertitz) and finds a safe harbor in the home of Old Read More

The Cavalier

Actors: Richard Talmadge, Barbara Bedford, Nora Cecil, David Torrence, David Mir

Synopsis: Silent-screen stunt man turned action-adventure star Richard Talmadge portrayed a masked rider coming to the rescue of an impoverished but noble Spanish girl ordered by her father to marry a wealthy suitor. This essentially silent Zorro imitation included a few badly dubbed songs by a star who Read More

City of Purple Dreams

Actors: Barbara Bedford, Robert W. Frazer, David Torrence, Jacqueline Gadsdon

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1918, Edwin Baird's play City of Purple Dreams was given a second cinematic go-round in 1928. Essentially a fairy tale, the story concerns a covetous young derelict, Daniel Randolph (Robert Frazer), who vows to get even for a slight perpetrated by wheat magnate Symington Otis (David Torrence Read More

Rolled Stockings

Actors: James Hall, Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen, Nancie Phillips, El Brendel

Synopsis: Though billed second, the stunningly beautiful Louise Brooks is the focal point of the campus comedy Rolled Stockings. It's the old one about two collegiate brothers, Jim and Ralph Treadway (James Hall, Richard Arlen), in love with the same girl, Carol Fleming (Brooks). While carefree older 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

World at Her Feet

Actors: Florence Vidor, Arnold Kent, Richard Tucker, Margaret Quimby, David Torrence

Synopsis: A French play by Georges Berr and Henri Verneuil was the source for Paramount's The World at Her Feet. The ever-glamorous Florence Vidor stars as the wife of busy businessman Richard Tucker. In a reversal of the usual situation, it is the wife, not the husband, who is the neglectful one. As hubby Read More

Annie Laurie

Actors: Lillian Gish, Norman Kerry, Creighton Hale, Joseph Striker, Hobart Bosworth

Synopsis: In this lavishly produced MGM production, the ethereal Lillian Gish is a bit more earthy than normal, due in part to the selection of her co-star, he-man Norman Kerry. "Suggested by" the well-known song, the story involves two feuding Scottish clans, the MacDonalds and the Camerons. Annie Laurie Read More

Hazardous Valley

Actors: Virginia Brown Faire, David Torrence, Sheldon Lewis, Burr McIntosh

Synopsis: The forgotten Vincent Brownell stars in this low-budgeter as the son of a wealthy lumber camp owner. Brownell arrives at the camp early in the film to make sure that nothing goes wrong with an important log shipment. But something does, thanks to his father's wicked rival David Torrence. Dismissed Read More

The Midnight Watch

Actors: Roy Stewart, David Torrence, Mary McAllister

Synopsis: Though cheaply produced and boasting a second-string cast, The Midnight Watch packed a lot of entertainment value in its brisk six reels. Roy Stewart stars as Bob Breemer, a college graduate who aspires to be a detective. Fed up with the boy's youthful arrogance, the police chief (David Torrence) Read More

Sandy

Actors: Madge Bellamy, Joan Standing, Leslie Fenton, Harrison Ford, Gloria Hope

Synopsis: Pert and pretty Sandy McNeill (Madge Bellamy) is strong-armed by her parents into marrying wealthy Ben Murillo (Bardson Bard). Ben turns out to be a sadistic wife-beater whose cruel excesses lead to the death of Sandy's baby. Fleeing this abusive environment, Sandy falls in love with handsome Read More

The King of the Turf

Actors: Patsy Ruth Miller, David Kirby, Billy Franey, Kenneth Harlan

Synopsis: King of the Turf has more plot twists than a Charles Dickens novel. It begins as no-account horse breeder Martyn Selsby (David Torrence) railroads his ex-partner Colonel Fairfax (George Irving) into prison on a trumped-up charge. Years later, the guilt-ridden Selsby writes a confession but dies Read More

The Auction Block

Actors: Charles Ray, Eleanor Boardman, Sally O'Neil, Ernest Gillen, Charles Clary

Synopsis: The career of Charles Ray was on a downhill slide by the time he made this picture, based on a novel by Rex Beach. It had been filmed once before, in 1917, but this version, made by MGM, played up its comedy aspects. As wealthy city boy Bob Wharton, Ray goes against his usual rube type with mixed Read More

Wolf Hunters

Actors: Alan Roscoe, Virginia Brown Faire, Mildred Harris, Robert McKim, Carroll Nye

Synopsis: A James Oliver Curwood story was the source for this rugged Canadian Mountie melodrama. Alan Roscoe plays Sgt. Steve Drew, the "lone rider" of the Mounties, at present on the prowl for illegal wolf trappers. Before he's able to get his man, Sgt. Steve spends a lot of time in the company of two Read More

The Unknown Cavalier

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

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

Forever After

Actors: Lloyd Hughes, Mary Astor, Hallam Cooley, David Torrence, Eulalie Jensen

Synopsis: This sentimental romance was based on the stage play by Owen Davis. Ted Wayne (Lloyd Hughes) and Jennie Clayton (Mary Astor) are childhood sweethearts who automatically assume they will always be together. But Ted is poor and Jennie is wealthy, and her mother (Eulalie Jensen) wants her to marry Read More

Brown of Harvard

Actors: Jack Pickford, Mary Brian, Mary Alden, David Torrence

Synopsis: While the mid-1920s were deluged with films about college life, and Brown of Harvard is probably the ultimate silent film in this genre, even more significantly it is an early example of the buddy film. Never mind the romance between Harvard undergrad Tom Brown (William Haines) and professor's Read More

The Third Degree

Actors: Dolores Costello, Louise Dresser, Rockliffe Fellowes, Jason Robards, Sr., Kate Price

Synopsis: Hungarian director Michael Curtiz made his American film bow with the highly stylized crime melodrama The Third Degree. Set against the backdrop of Coney Island, the story concerns a young couple, Annie Daly (Dolores Costello) and Howard Jeffries Jr. (Jason Robards Sr.). She's a working-class Read More

The Man in the Shadow

Synopsis: Produced and directed by David M. Hartford, The Man in the Shadow featured Joseph Bennett as Dallis Alvoid, a young bank clerk lured into a life of crime by Thomas Walsh (John T. Dwyer), a nasty gambler. Dallis is soon deep in debt to the villain, who blackmails him into handing over the Read More

Oh! What A Nurse

Actors: Sidney Chaplin, Patsy Ruth Miller, Gayne Whitman, Pat Hartigan, Edith Yorke

Oh, What a Nurse

Synopsis: Sydney Chaplin, the talented brother (and business manger) of Charlie Chaplin, had scored a hit in the female-impersonation comedy Charley's Aunt, prompting Warner Bros. to cast him in another "drag" epic, Oh! What a Nurse. Chaplin is cast as newspaper reporter Jerry Clark, who falls in love with Read More

Laddie

Actors: David Torrence, Eulalie Jensen, Aggie Herring

Synopsis: Laddie was the first of three film versions of the classic rural novel by Gene Stratton-Porter. John Bowers stars as Indiana farm boy Laddie Stanton, who falls in love with Pamela Pryor (Bess Flowers), the daughter of wealthy English squire Mahlon Pryor (Arthur Clayton). Their romance is aided and Read More

The Isle of Retribution

Synopsis: Victor McLaglen (then billed as Victor M'Laglen) easily stole this drama away from its star, Robert Frazer. Frazer's character, Ned Cornet, isn't a particularly attractive hero; he's the weak-willed son of a wealthy man, Godfrey Cornet (David Torrence). The father sends his son northwards to Read More

The Tower of Lies

Actors: Norma Shearer, Lon Chaney, Ian Keith, Claire McDowell, William Haines

Synopsis: Director Victor Sjostrom and stars Lon Chaney and Norma Shearer made an impressive team on He Who Gets Slapped. They came together again for this dour and less interesting film, based on the novel The Emperor of Portugallia by the Swedish author Selma Lagerlof. Jan (Chaney) is a farmer whose hard Read More

Fighting the Flames

Actors: David Torrence, William Haines, Dorothy Devore, Sheldon Lewis, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: Horatio "Racy" Manly (William Haines) spends his time partying, much to the dismay of his father, Judge Manly (David Torrence). The frustrated judge finally disowns him. Racy befriends a young boy, Mickey (Frankie Darrow), whose father, Big Jim (Sheldon Lewis), is a criminal who is currently Read More

The Reckless Sex

Actors: Madge Bellamy, William Collier, Jr., Wyndham Standing, Walter Long

Synopsis: A young Bostonian (Johnnie Walker) travels West to expect his father's New Mexico estate, which has become a target for gun runners. Along the way he mistakes travelling stock company actress Madge Bellamy for a child and brings her to the ranch. (The mistake is understandable as Bellamy was Read More

What Fools Men

Actors: Shirley Mason, Barbara Bedford, Ethel Grey Terry, Hugh Allan

Synopsis: This drama was based on the novel Joseph Greer and His Daughter by Henry Kitchell Webster. Inventor Joseph Greer (Lewis Stone) has been separated from his wife for many years, and suddenly discovers he must look after Beatrice (Shirley Mason), his grown daughter who he didn't even know existed. Read More

Her Husband's Secret

Actors: Antonio Moreno, Patsy Ruth Miller, Ruth Clifford, David Torrence, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: Leon Kent (Walter McGrail) is a ne'er-do-well who throws wild parties. His wife eventually tires of him. She finds sympathy with Ross Brewster, a banker (David Torrence), which angers Kent. After an argument, Kent walks out with the couple's little boy. A couple of decades later, Brewster's Read More

Mystic

Actors: Aileen Pringle, Conway Tearle, Mitchell Lewis, Robert Ober, Stanton Heck

Synopsis: Returning to one of his favorite themes, crooks bilking the gullible nouveau riche, Tod Browning both co-wrote (with Waldemar Young) and directed this evocative silent melodrama starring Conway Tearle as Michael Nash, an American criminal who imports a gang of Hungarian gypsies to gain control Read More

Other Woman's Story

Actors: Alice Calhoun, Robert W. Frazer, Helen Lee Worthing, Mahlon Hamilton, Gertrude Short

Synopsis: The Other Woman's Story begins as Bennett Colby (Robert Frazer) is convicted of the murder of Robert Marshall (Mahlon Hamilton). As Colby sits on death row, he recalls the events leading to his present sorry condition in a series of flashbacks. Meanwhile, the hero's sweetheart Miss Prentiss (Helen Lee Worthing Read More

Dawn of a Tomorrow

Actors: Jacqueline Logan, Raymond Griffith, David Torrence, Roland Bottomley, Harris Gordon

Synopsis: Mary Pickford starred in the 1915 version of this film, based on the Frances Hodgson Burnett story, and it's easy to imagine her in the Pollyanna-like role of Glad. Jacqueline Logan is good enough as the sunny girl of the slums, but she's no Pickford. When Sir Oliver Holt (David Torrence) has a Read More

Drums of Jeopardy

Actors: Elaine Hammerstein, Jack Mulhall, David Torrence, Wallace Beery, Maude George

Synopsis: This mystery starring Elaine Hammerstein was based on the novel by Harold McGrath. The story centers around two small statuettes containing valuable emeralds, which are said to project a sinister influence on the possessor. The czar of Russia gives the statuettes to a grand duke, who, in turn Read More

Which Shall It Be?

Actors: Willis Marks, Ethel Wales, David Torrence, Paul Weigel, Mary McLane

Synopsis: Although the story line to this sentimental drama was ridiculously simple, director Renaud Hoffman managed to fill out five reels by adding a lot of warm, domestic touches. Robert Moore (David Torrence) achieves great wealth while his brother John (Willis Marks), a small farmer, has to struggle to Read More

Sawdust Trail

Actors: Hoot Gibson, Josie Sedgwick, David Torrence, Charles French, Pat Harmon

Synopsis: Universal's top western ace Hoot Gibson enjoyed fine support from another of the studio's sagebrush stars -- cowgirl Josie Sedgwick -- in this average silent oater. He is a college boy from the East who joins a Wild West show, she the man-hating Calamity Jane, victim of a series of practical Read More

Surging Seas

Actors: Charles Hutchinson, Edith Thornton, George Hackathorne, David Torrence

Synopsis: Judging from this action picture, Charles Hutchison might as well have never left serials -- he performs enough stunts here to fill up ten episodes. Family black sheep Bob Sinclair (Hutchison) returns home after buying a ranch in Mexico to discover that his brother, Edwin (Earl Metcalf), is guilty Read More

Idle Tongues

Actors: Percy Marmont, Doris Kenyon, Claude Gillingwater, Lucille Ricksen, David Torrence

Synopsis: This tale of small-town gossip and self-sacrifice was one of the last productions supervised by Thomas Ince (he died under mysterious circumstances while on a yachting party with newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst in November, 1924). When Faith Copeland (Lucille Ricksen) has a romance with Read More

Tiger Love

Actors: Antonio Moreno, Estelle Taylor, G. Raymond Nye, Manuel Camere, Edgar Norton

Synopsis: Although the story to this romantic adventure was founded on the Manuel Penella opera El Gato Montes, its utter lack of originality shows that it really could have come from any number of sources. Nevertheless, the performance of Latin lover Antonio Moreno manages to compensate for the material. Read More

Railroaded

Actors: Herbert Rawlinson, Esther Ralston, Alfred Fisher, David Torrence, Lionel Belmore

Synopsis: Richard (Herbert Rawlinson), the son of Judge Garbin (David Torrence), is railroaded into prison. He angrily swears vengeance against Corton (Mike Donlin), the man who sent him and his prison mate up the river. Escaping, he returns to his father, who sends him to finish out his prison term at the Read More

The Light That Failed

Actors: Jacqueline Logan, Percy Marmont, David Torrence, Sigrid Holmquist, Mabel Van Buren

Synopsis: The tale centers around Dick Heldar (Percy Marmont), an aspiring artist. Although he is devoted to his childhood sweetheart, Maisie Wells (Sigrid Holmquist), his ambition drives him to faraway places. He meets Torpenhow (David Torrence), a war correspondent, at Port Said, and accompanies him into Read More

Trimmed in Scarlet

Actors: Kathlyn Williams, Roy Stewart, Lucille Ricksen, Robert Agnew, David Torrence

Synopsis: This implausible melodrama is based on the play by William Hurlburt. Although Cordelia Ebbing (Kathlyn Williams) leaves her husband (Phillips Smalley) because he has been unfaithful, she's the one who is said to be "trimmed in scarlet." Her daughter Faith (Lucille Rickson}, who has grown up Read More

The Abysmal Brute

Synopsis: Since his British accent remained conveniently unheard during the silent era, Reginald Denny made a wonderful all-American hero. He's nicely cast in this romance based on the novel by Jack London. Pat Glendon (Denny) has been raised in the California mountains by his ex-pugilist father (Charles K. Read More

Man Next Door

Actors: David Torrence, Frank Sheridan, James Morrison, Alice Calhoun, John Steppling

Synopsis: The story to this comedy-drama is based on the book by Emerson Hough, who was experiencing a surge of popularity because his book The Covered Wagon had recently been made into a hit film. Ranchman Colonel Wright (David Torrence) sends his daughter Bonnie (Alice Calhoun) to an Eastern college to Read More

Power of a Lie

Actors: Maude George, Mabel Julienne Scott, Ruby Lafayette, Earl Metcalfe

Synopsis: This dramatic Universal programmer was based on the novel by Johann Bojer. Building contractor John Hammond (David Torrance) has been trying to help his friend Richard Burton (Earl Metcalfe) get a foothold in respectable society. Burton, who is engaged to Hammond's sister Betty (Mabel Julienne Scott Read More

Forsaking All Others

Actors: Colleen Moore, Cullen Landis, June Elvidge, Sam de Grasse, David Torrence

Synopsis: Colleen Moore had not yet become the epitome of Flaming Youth when she co-starred with Cullen Landis in this pleasant little comedy. After the proliferation of mother-as-martyr films during the early 1920s, it was refreshing to have a selfish, conniving matriarch here in the form of Mrs. Newell Read More

Tess of the Storm Country

Actors: Mary Pickford, Lloyd Hughes, Gloria Hope, David Torrence, Forrest Robinson

Synopsis: Mary Pickford had recently put out a couple of mediocre pictures and her latest, Little Lord Fauntleroy, wasn't an immediate hit with her audience (although it would gross over a million dollars -- an enormous sum in those days -- some fans initially voiced disappointment in the film). It was time Read More

Virgin's Sacrifice

Actors: Corinne Griffith, George MacQuarrie, Louise Prussing

Synopsis: This was not one of Corinne Griffith's better vehicles. It's one of a seemingly endless procession of Northwoods melodramas, usually released in the summer to (at least visually) cool off theater patrons who did not yet have the benefit of air conditioning. Griffith plays Althea Sherrill, who Read More

Sherlock Holmes

Actors: John Barrymore, Roland Young, Carol Dempster, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Louis Wolheim

Synopsis: John Barrymore's impressive performance in this picture is a testament to the strength of his talent, because it had a lot to overcome -- according to director Albert Parker, the famed thespian was on a bender for much of the shoot. This version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories (adapted from Read More

Inside of the Cup

Actors: William P. Carleton, David Torrence, Edith Hallor, Marguerite Clayton

Synopsis: Popular early 20th century author Winston Churchill should not be confused with the English statesman of the same name. Many of Churchill's books were made into motion pictures, and this one is a fierce indictment of Christian hypocrisy. John Hodder (William P. Carleton) is the new rector at St. Read More

The Prisoner of Zenda

Synopsis: In 1912, film pioneers Edwin S. Porter, Adolph Zukor and David Frohman formed the Famous Players film corporation for the express purpose of immortalizing on celluloid the greatest performances of Broadway's finest actors. The new company's first production was Anthony Hope's Ruritanian Read More