DeWitt JenningsFilmography

This is My Affair

Actors: Robert Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck, Victor McLaglen, Brian Donlevy, Sidney Blackmer

Synopsis: Based on fact, this turn-of-the-century crime drama stars Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck (husband and wife at the time). Taylor plays a seemingly disreputable young man who joins a gang of murderous bank robbers, headed by Victor McLaglen. Stanwyck is a beer-hall entertainer, who disapproves Read More

Slave Ship

Actors: Warner Baxter, Wallace Beery, Elizabeth Allan, Mickey Rooney, George Sanders

Synopsis: This period adventure drama was directed by Tay Garnett and adapted from a story by William Faulkner. The skipper of a slave trading vessel operating along the West African coast in 1860, Captain Jim Lovett (Warner Baxter) is troubled by his flesh-peddling trade. He's marrying the beautiful Nancy Read More

We Who Are About to Die

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Ann Dvorak, John Beal, Ray Mayer, Gordon Jones

Synopsis: Its title notwithstanding, We Who Are About to Die has nothing to do with Roman Gladiators. Rather, the film is based on the true story of San Quentin inmate David Lamson, who spent 13 agonizing months on Death Row before the Supreme Court reversed his conviction. Renamed John (and played by John Beal Read More

Fifty Roads to Town

Actors: Don Ameche, Ann Sothern, George "Slim" Summerville, Jane Darwell, John Qualen

Synopsis: Don Ameche is called upon to testify in his married friends' divorce case. Unwilling to take sides, he skips town and hides out at a country inn. A young girl (Ann Sothern) stumbles into Ameche's rural hideaway; she thinks he's an escaped gangster, while he thinks she's a process server. The local Read More

Nancy Steele Is Missing!

Actors: Victor McLaglen, Walter Connolly, Peter Lorre, June Lang, Robert Kent

Synopsis: Nancy Steele was the baby daughter of a munitions tycoon who was kidnapped by an antiwar activist who did it to protest the magnate's support of WW I. This drama provides a sympathetic portrait of the kidnapper who leaves the baby with two close friend who assume it's his and raise her. The Read More

The Accusing Finger

Actors: Marsha Hunt, Robert Cummings, Paul Kelly, Kent Taylor, Harry Carey

Synopsis: Dynamic district attorney Douglas Goodwin (Paul Kelly) has no patience with murderers: his philosophy is "burn them all," and never mind the mitigating circumstances. But Goodwin finds himself on the other end of the spectrum when he is framed on a murder charge and sent to Death Row. During his Read More

The Crime of Dr. Forbes

Actors: Gloria Stuart, Robert Kent, Henry Armetta, J. Edward Bromberg, Sara Haden

Synopsis: Mercy killing is the primary topic of this crime drama when a doctor, who is disabled after a terrible accident begs his student to give him an overdose of pain killers so that he can die peacefully. The young doctor does not. Trouble ensues after the young medico falls for his mentor's wife. Soon Read More

Kelly the Second

Actors: Patsy Kelly, Pert Kelton, Charley Chase, Edward S. Brophy

Synopsis: Produced by Hal Roach, Kelly the Second is one of the few feature films to capture the comic spirit of Roach's wonderful two-reelers. Patsy Kelly stars as Molly Kelly, who as the result of an unexpected street brawl becomes the trainer of truck-driver-turned-prizefighter Cecil Callahan (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams Read More

Sins of Man

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Don Ameche, Allen Jenkins, J. Edward Bromberg, Ann Shoemaker

Synopsis: A bell ringer's wife dies while giving birth to his second son who turns out to be deaf. His oldest son moves to America where he becomes a successful engineer. Meanwhile, back at home in Austria, the bell ringer gives his remaining son to a monastery and then wanders off to become a bum. Years Read More

The Secret of the Chateau

Actors: Claire Dodd, Clark Williams, William Faversham, Osgood Perkins, Ferdinand Gottschalk

Synopsis: Venerable character actor Ferdinand Gottschalk dominates the proceedings in the Universal crime meller Secret of the Chateau. The plot is set in motion by a rare Gutenberg bible, much coveted by a variety of thieves and mountebanks. Chief Inspector Marotte (Gottschalk) is anxious to capture an Read More

Murder on a Honeymoon

Actors: Edna May Oliver, James Gleason, Lola Lane, Chick Chandler, George Meeker

Synopsis: Though it wasn't RKO Radio's final "Hildegarde Withers" mystery, Murder on a Honeymoon represented the final appearance of Edna May Oliver as Stuart Palmer's spinsterish schoolmarm sleuth. This entry was wittily adapted by Seton I. Miller and Robert Benchley from Palmer's Puzzle of the Pepper Read More

The Daring Young Man

Actors: James Dunn, Mae Clarke, Neil Hamilton, Sidney Toler, Warren Hymer

Synopsis: The Daring Young Man is hotshot-reporter Don McLane, played by James Dunn. Always on the prowl for a good story, McLane is persistently outscooped by his rival, sob sister Martha Allen (Mae Clarke). After several reels of double-crossing one another, hero and heroine give in to the inevitable and Read More

A Dog of Flanders

Actors: Frankie Thomas, Helen Parrish, O.P. Heggie, Richard Quine, Christian Rub

Synopsis: Dog of Flanders, the durable novel written in 1872 by the author who signed herself Ouida, was filmed three times, first in 1924 with Jackie Coogan. The second filmization, produced in 1935, stars child actors Frankie Thomas, Helen Parrish and Richard Quine as three poor Flemish youths whose lives Read More

Village Tale

Actors: Randolph Scott, Kay Johnson, Arthur Hohl, Robert H. Barrat, Janet Beecher

Synopsis: This drama presents a dim view of life in a small town populated by back-stabbing, narrow-minded, hypocritical and maliciously gossipy bigots who meet at the town general store to spread their vicious lies. The current slander centers upon a young man who has an innocent crush on another man's Read More

The Farmer Takes a Wife

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Henry Fonda, Charles Bickford, George "Slim" Summerville, Andy Devine

Synopsis: Henry Fonda made his screen debut in this filmization of his Broadway success The Farmer Takes a Wife. The story is set along the Erie Canal in the 1850s. Fonda plays a farmer who takes a river job to make ends meet. He falls in love with Janet Gaynor, daughter of a canal-boat cook, who thinks Read More

Front Page Woman

Actors: Bette Davis, George Brent, Roscoe Karns, June Martel, Dorothy Dare, Joseph Crehan, Walter Walker, Winifred Shaw

Synopsis: Front Page Woman was one of those bread-and-butter vehicles that forced Bette Davis to go on strike against Warner Bros., demanding more worthwhile scripts. On its own terms, the film is a briskly entertaining newspaper yarn about two warring reporters (Davis and George Brent). In their efforts to 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

Mary Jane's Pa

Actors: Aline MacMahon, Guy Kibbee, Tom Brown, Robert McWade, Minor Watson

Synopsis: In this drama, a hard working printer gets wanderlust, leaves his wife and family, and hits the road. Ten years pass. His wife has become a prominent citizen and runs a big newspaper. He returns, impoverished, and though bitter, she gives him a job as her house servant so he can be near his Read More

Charlie Chan's Courage

Actors: Warner Oland, Drue Leyton, Donald Woods, Paul Harvey, Murray Kinnell

Synopsis: Warner Oland made his fifth appearance as wily Honolulu-based detective Charlie Chan in Fox's Charlie Chan's Courage. Hired to deliver a valuable necklace, Chan shows up at a ranch estate, posing as a servant. His task is complicated when Victor Jordan (Jack Carter), the man who engaged his Read More

The President Vanishes

Actors: Janet Beecher, Paul Kelly, Peggy Conklin, Rosalind Russell

Synopsis: Based upon a novel anonymously written by Rex Stout, The President Vanishes has as its title character a peace-loving man with distinct anti-interventionist views. As the picture opens, President Stanley Craig (A.S. Byron) finds himself in a bit of a bind: he fervently believes that the United Read More

Little Man, What Now?

Actors: Margaret Sullavan, Douglass Montgomery, Alan Hale, Catherine Doucet, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Set in Germany shortly before the collapse of the Weimar Republic, this romantic drama chronicles the travails of an impoverished newlywed couple who leave their home village and move in with the groom's stepmother in bustling Berlin to find success. The husband gets a small job in a department Read More

A Man's Game

Actors: Tim McCoy, Evelyn Knapp, Ward Bond, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: Again forsaking his traditional western garb, Tim McCoy plays a rough-and-ready fireman in Columbia's A Man's Game. During one blaze, Tim and his partner Dave (Ward Bond) rescue pretty stenographer Judy (Evelyn Knapp). Falling in love with the girl, the boys try to save her from getting mixed up Read More

Massacre

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Ann Dvorak, Dudley Digges, Claire Dodd, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: One of the first major Hollywood films to seriously address America's ongoing mistreatment of its Indian population, Massacre is more admirable for its intentions than its execution. The film was inspired by the activities of John Collier, commissioner for the Bureau of Indian Affairs during Read More

Operator 13

Actors: Gary Cooper, Marion Davies, Jean Parker, Katherine Alexander, Ted Healy

Synopsis: If you can accept blonde, blue-eyed Marion Davies disguising herself in blackface, chances are you'll swallow the rest of Operator 13. Davies plays a Belle Boyd-like actress who agrees to become a Northern spy during the Civil War. She assumes the identity of an octoroon servant and heads into Read More

A Wicked Woman

Actors: Mady Christians, Jean Parker, Charles Bickford, Betty Furness, William Henry

Synopsis: Helen Hayes reportedly turned down the opportunity to play the title role in this dreary melodrama about self-sacrificing motherhood; the opportunity, if that's the word, instead went to Viennese import Mady Christians. After killing her abusive husband (Paul Harvey) in self-defense, downtrodden Read More

The Fighting Rookie

Synopsis: After being framed in a warehouse robbery, a police officer goes undercover as a drunk in order to get the goods on the real culprit in this low-budget affair from Mayfair Pictures Corp. starring Jack La Rue. Arriving at the resort owned and operated by the suspect in the warehouse case, Louis Read More

Take the Stand

Actors: Thelma Todd, Gail Patrick, Russell Hopton, Berton Churchill

Synopsis: A story by Earl Derr Biggers, of Charlie Chan fame, was the springboard for the Monogram melodrama Take the Stand. An abrasive Winchell-type columnist (Jack LaRue) manages to accumulate dozens of enemies, at least one of whom has murder on the mind. While many of the victims of the journalist's Read More

Death on the Diamond

Actors: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Ted Healy, C. Henry Gordon

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Cortland Fitzsimmons, the storyline of this "gimmick" mystery follows the St. Louis Cardinals during a championship season. The arrival of hotshot pitcher Larry Kelly (Robert Young) coincides with an apparent plot to sabotage the Cards' chances of making it to the World Series. 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

Strictly Personal

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

The Mystery of the Wax Museum

Actors: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh, Allen Vincent, Gavin Gordon

Synopsis: The Mystery of the Wax Museum begins in London in the 1920s. Lionel Atwill plays Ivan Igor, a brilliant sculptor who manages a wax museum. Regarding his historical creations as his friends, Igor refuses the entreaties of his business partner, Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell), to turn his labor-of-love Read More

Grand Slam

Actors: Paul Lukas, Loretta Young, Frank McHugh, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson

Synopsis: Paul Lukas plays a nightclub headwaiter who rises to fame as a bridge expert. He marries hat check girl Loretta Young, likewise a card fanatic. Lukas and Young find themselves vying for the national bridge championship, which results in the expected frictions. All is forgiven in the climactic Read More

A Lady's Profession

Actors: Alison Skipworth, Roland Young, Sara Maritza, Kent Taylor, Roscoe Karns

Synopsis: A couple of down-and-out British aristocrats buy an American roadhouse in this uproarious farce from Paramount. Naming the establishment after their estate in the old country, Twicket-on-Topping, Lady Beulah (Alison Skipworth) and her brother Sir Reginald (Roland Young) run afoul of American Read More

Ladies They Talk About

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Preston S. Foster, Lyle Talbot, Dorothy Burgess, Lillian Roth

Synopsis: One of the earliest girls-in-prison yarns, Ladies They Talk About has everything but Ida Lupino as the warden--and had she been in Hollywood at the time, she would probably be here as well. Gun moll Barbara Stanwyck is thrown into San Quentin (which looks more like a summer resort than a house of Read More

Reform Girl

Actors: Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Hale Hamilton, Robert Ellis, Dorothy Peterson

Synopsis: The most exciting thing about Reform Girl is its title. Released from prison, hard-boiled Lydia Johnson (Noel Francis) immediately returns to her old lifestyle. In concert with a gang of crooks, Lydia tries to frame Senator Putnam (Hale Hamilton), a reform candidate. But when she falls in love Read More

Police Car 17

Actors: Tim McCoy, Evelyn Knapp, Wallis Clark, Ward Bond, Harold Huber

Synopsis: Police Car 17 is one of a handful of non-westerns made for Columbia by cowboy star Tim McCoy. Motor patrolman Tim Conlon (McCoy) and his partner Bumps O'Neill (Ward Bond) vie for the attentions of Helen Regan (Evelyn Knapp), daughter of a fellow cop. Our hero not only wins Helen but also the Read More

One Year Later

Actors: Mary Brian, Russell Hopton, Donald Dillaway, George Irving, Will Ahern

Synopsis: In this drama, a recently convicted criminal boards a train bound for the prison where he will be hanged. His wife rides with him and en route tells a reporter how her husband had accidentally killed a man while protecting her. The reporter, who is dying of tuberculosis, is touched by the story Read More

Tess of the Storm Country

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Dudley Digges, June Clyde, George Meeker

Synopsis: In this drama, an old sea captain and his feisty daughter are squatting upon the land of another. The trouble begins when their humble home burns down and the old salt is falsely accused of a crime and imprisoned. To make matters worse, the daughter is then wrongly ostracized for being pregnant. Read More

Dancers in the Dark

Actors: Miriam Hopkins, Jack Oakie, William Collier, Jr., Eugene Pallette, Lyda Roberti

Synopsis: In this drama, a bandleader thinks that his young friend will be corrupted by his budding relationship with a taxi dancer. To protect the tender youth, the conductor sends him out of town.The bandleader soon finds himself wooing the lovely dancer. Unfortunately, a jealous gangster is also in love 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

Movie Crazy

Actors: Harold Lloyd, Constance Cummings, Ken Thomson, Sidney Jarvis

Synopsis: Movie Crazy was Harold Lloyd's best-received sound film. It is the semi-autobiographical tale of an idealistic aspiring movie star who exchanges the quiet life in his sleepy Kansas hometown for the glamour and excitement of Tinseltown where he mistakenly believes he has been selected for a Read More

Midnight Morals

Actors: Beryl Mercer, DeWitt Jennings, Charles Delaney, Alberta Vaughn, Gwen Lee

Synopsis: The problem with the main characters in Midnight Morals is that they have more midnight than morals in their lives. Rookie cop Charles Delaney falls in love with taxi dancer Alberta Vaughan, much to the consternation of Delaney's chief-detective father DeWitt Jennings. Dad's trepidations seem to Read More

The Match King

Actors: Warren William, Lili Damita, Glenda Farrell, Harold Huber, Spencer Charters

Synopsis: The Match King was inspired by the checkered career of entrepreneur Ivar Krueger. Warren William plays a Krueger-like businessman who takes over a bankrupt Swedish match factory, then lies his way into getting corporate backing for the operation. With little regard for ethics, William purchases Read More

Silver Dollar

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Bebe Daniels, Aline MacMahon, Jobyna Howland, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: The factual story of H.A.W. Tabor and "Baby Doe" was the inspiration of Silver Dollar. Edward G. Robinson plays the Tabor counterpart, a prospector who strikes it rich with a silver mine. Robinson establishes the city of Denver, strongarms his way into political power, buys every creature comfort Read More

The Squaw Man

Actors: Paul Cavanagh, Lupe Velez, Eleanor Boardman, Roland Young

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's third remake of his debut film, this was the first sound version of Edwin Milton Royle's stage western melodrama. The story centers on a British captain who heads into the American West after taking the blame for his embezzling, blue-blooded cousin to protect the reputation of Read More

The Secret Six

Actors: Wallace Beery, Johnny Mack Brown, Jean Harlow, Marjorie Rambeau

Synopsis: Bootleggers Louis Scorpio (Wallace Beery) and Johnny Franks (Ralph Bellamy), with the advice of their alcoholic lawyer Richard Newton (Lewis Stone), try to muscle in on the territory of gangster "Smiling Joe" Colimo (John Miljan). Franks kills Colimo's brother and tries to frame Scorpio, but Read More

Salvation Nell

Actors: Ralph Graves, Helen Chandler, Sally O'Neil, Jason Robards, Sr., DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: In this religious (but not overbearingly so) drama, a good man gets involved with a woman who wants to marry the man who impregnated her. When the lout refuses, her good friend intervenes to defend her and accidently kills the other. As a result he is imprisoned for five years. Following his Read More

A Dangerous Affair

Actors: Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, Sally Blane, Susan Fleming

Synopsis: Two rough-and-ready guys; one beautiful dame; a tough job that has to be done, and "one of us may not come out alive"; the younger guy gets the girl in the end. This could have been the synopsis of virtually every one of the Jack Holt-Ralph Graves vehicles at Columbia, as witness Dangerous Affair. Read More

The Criminal Code

Actors: Walter Huston, Phillips Holmes, Constance Cummings, Mary Doran, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: Howard Hawks' early sound prison melodrama, based on a play by Martin Flavin, already contains his stylistic signature of over-lapping dialogue -- a technique he would greatly expand upon in the next ten years. Walter Huston is district attorney Brady, who quickly convicts Robert Graham (Phillips Holmes Read More

Arrowsmith

Actors: Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes, Richard Bennett, A.E. Anson, Clarence Brooks, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: One of the more prestigious films of its time, John Ford's film adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has a sleek Art Deco look strangely out of tune with its tale of moral struggle. Ronald Colman stars as Martin Arrowsmith, an idealistic young doctor, who, after graduating Read More

The Deceiver

Actors: Lloyd Hughes, Dorothy Sebastian, Ian Keith, Natalie Moorhead, Richard Tucker

Synopsis: Most of The Deceiver takes place in the Broadway theater where matinee idol Thorpe (Ian Keith) is starring in a production of Othello. A rat with women, Thorpe has scattered broken female hearts all along the Great White Way, giving lots of people plenty of incentive to murder him. Sure enough, he Read More

Caught Plastered

Actors: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Dorothy Lee, Lucy Beaumont, Jason Robards, Sr.

Synopsis: After briefly splitting for a brace of unsuccessful solo ventures, the comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were reunited in one of their best vehicles, Caught Plastered. Bert and Bob are cast as itinerant vaudevillians Tommy and Egbert, who find themselves stranded in a small Midwestern Read More

Scarlet Pages

Actors: Elsie Ferguson, John Halliday, Marian Nixon, Grant Withers, Daisy Belmore

Synopsis: In rare film appearance, Broadway luminary Elsie Ferguson repeats her 1929 stage role in the 1930 film version of Scarlet Pages. Ferguson is cast as brilliant attorney Mary Bancroft, who defends nightclub songstress Nora Mason (Marian Nixon) from a murder charge. The victim was Nora's rapacious Read More

Night Ride

Actors: Joseph Schildkraut, Barbara Kent, Edward G. Robinson, Harry Stubbs, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: Made in the final years of director John S. Robertson's career, Night Ride is a crime drama starring Joseph Schildkraut as Joe Rooker, a reporter who finds himself pulled away from his wedding reception to cover a bank robbery. When he figures out that the robber is gang leader Tony Garotta Read More

The Big House

Actors: Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, Robert Montgomery, Leila Hyams, Lewis Stone

Synopsis: Not the first of the prison pictures, but the one that truly put the genre on the map. Playboy Kent (Robert Montgomery), driving drunk, kills a couple of pedestrians and is sentenced to a 10-year manslaughter term. His cellmate is forger Morgan (Chester Morris), a tough but essentially decent con; Read More

The Bat Whispers

Actors: Spencer Charters, Chester Morris, Una Merkel, William Bakewell, Chance Ward, Richard Tucker, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Wilson Benge

Synopsis: Magnificently restored by UCLA to its original "Grandeur" wide-screen format The Bat Whispers may not be a cinematic masterpiece but is certainly worth a second look. Opening with a series of flamboyant tracking shots, director Roland West soon enough settles down to the usual "Old House" Read More

Captain of the Guard

Actors: John Boles, Sam de Grasse, James Marcus, Harry Cording

Synopsis: This French epic chronicles the French Revolution as seen by Rouget de Lisle, the man who composed the French national anthem. In addition to many scenes of angry peasants, the film also feature's many songs by Lisle. The film makes no claim for historical accuracy. Songs include: "Song of the Read More

Outside the Law

Actors: Mary Nolan, Edward G. Robinson, Owen Moore, Edwin Sturgis, John George

Synopsis: A remake of his 1921 film of the same name, Tod Browning's Outside the Law offers Edward G. Robinson in an incisive, pre-Little Caesar gangster portrayal. Robinson, however, is not the star of the picture: that honor goes to Owen Moore, cast as enterprising bank robber Fingers O'Dell. As part of Read More

The Big Trail

Actors: John Wayne, Marguerite Churchill, El Brendel, Tully Marshall, Tyrone Power, Sr.

Synopsis: The first "epic" western of the talkie era, The Big Trail is motivated by a hero's search for the murderer of his father. Twenty-three-year-old John Wayne, hitherto limited to bit parts, was thrust into the difficult leading role, a young mountaineer put in charge of a huge California-bound wagon Read More

Those Who Dance

Actors: Monte Blue, Lila Lee, Betty Compson, William Janney

Synopsis: Those Who Dance is not so much a film as a "class reunion" for several former silent-screen favorites. Monte Blue stars as Dan Hogan, a cop who poses as a Detroit gangster, the better to ferret out the murderer of his brother. He does this as much for himself as for his sweetheart Nora Brady (Lila Lee Read More

Min and Bill

Actors: Donald Dillaway, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Dorothy Jordan, Marjorie Rambeau

Synopsis: This early talkie melodrama features a waterfront hotel-owner (Marie Dressler) and her relationship with an area fisherman (Wallace Beery). The two are the guardians for a young girl (Dorothy Jordan) whose mother deserted her, but they lose custody of the girl to truant officers. The couple scrape Read More

In the Next Room

Actors: Jane Winton, Crauford Kent, Edward Earle, Jack Mulhall, Alice Day

Synopsis: This thriller begins in 1889 as a lover kills another in a mansion. The film then jumps ahead to 1929 as an eccentric antique dealer, his daughter, maid and butler are moving in to the same mansion. Upon the arrival of the daughter's fiance, a reporter, a series of strange murders start. ~ Sandra Read More

Red Hot Speed

Actors: Reginald Denny, Alice Day, Charles Byer, Fritzi Ridgeway

Synopsis: The fact that "all-American" leading man Reginald Denny spoke with a pronounced British accent somewhat worked against his portrayal of a New York parole officer in Red Hot Speed. Alice Day plays the daughter of newspaper publisher DeWitt Jennings, the latter currently engaged in an Read More

The Valiant

Actors: Paul Muni, Marguerite Churchill, DeWitt Jennings, Henry Kolker, Edith Yorke

Synopsis: The Valiant began life as a one-act play by Holworthy Hall and Robert Middlemass. It is a stark little vaudeville piece about a convicted murderer who goes silently to his execution without ever revealing his true identity. Expanded to 65 minutes, The Valiant was filmed in 1929, starring Paul Muni Read More

Seven Keys to Baldpate

Actors: Richard Dix, Miriam Seegar, Margaret Livingston, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1917 and 1925, the evergreen George M. Cohan-Earl Derr Biggers stage mystery Seven Keys to Baldpate was remade as a talkie in late 1929 (and there were still three more remakes to come). Richard Dix stars as novelist William Magee, who's having trouble completing his latest 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

Thru Different Eyes

Actors: Mary Duncan, Edmund Lowe, Warner Baxter, Natalie Moorhead, Earl Foxe

Synopsis: A murder trial provides the setting of this drama that presents, via flashback, three very different versions and motives of the killing. According to the prosecution, the deceased's sexy (and very much married) mistress is behind the murder. The defense asserts that the woman's lover killed Read More

The Trial of Mary Dugan

Actors: Norma Shearer, H.B. Warner, Raymond Hackett, Lilyan Tashman

Synopsis: In this well-executed courtroom drama, a Broadway chorine is accused of stabbing her wealthy boy friend to death. The girl is defended by her good friend. During the trial, the lawyer refrains from cross-examining the witnesses. This enrages the dancer's younger brother, who has just passed the Read More

Alibi

Actors: Chester Morris, Harry Stubbs, Mae Busch, Eleanor Griffith, Irma Harrison

Synopsis: Director Roland West was a moody and mysterious Hollywood character, who insisted upon making his pictures in utter secrecy and filming only at night. This may explain the overall foreboding atmosphere of Alibi, West's first talking picture. Chester Morris portrays a ruthless gangster who must Read More

Fox Movietone Follies of 1929

Actors: John Breeden, Sue Carol, DeWitt Jennings, David Rollins, Lola Lane, Stepin Fetchit, Warren Hymer, Arthur Stone

Synopsis: In this musical comedy, a young man from Virginia who is heir to a wealthy estate falls in love with a girl who longs to be a Broadway star. He moves to New York to be with her but discovers that she's a lot more interested in her career than in settling down. Hoping to turn her gaze away from the Read More

Crash

Actors: Milton Sills, Thelma Todd, Wade Boteler, William Demarest, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: Comedy specialist Edward F. Cline was a curious choice to direct the typically two-fisted Milton Sills vehicle The Crash. Sills plays the head guy of a wrecking crew who, while out on the town, is smitten by burlesque dancer Thelma Todd. At first, Sills' intentions toward Todd are strictly Read More

The Air Mail Pilot

Actors: Earl Metcalfe, Blanche Mehaffey, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: If stunt pilots Ormer Locklear and Al Wilson could star in their own films, then by golly James F. Fulton could too. Only one problem: Fulton may have been a star in the clouds, but on land he was just one step above inept. In Air Mail Pilot, Fulton not unexpectedly plays the title role, while Earl Metcalfe Read More

Marry the Girl

Actors: Barbara Bedford

Synopsis: The crooked butler (Paul Weigel) and maid (Florence Turner) of wealthy Martin Wayland (DeWitt Jennings) concoct an elaborate scam to separate the old man from his dough. First, they frame Wayland's son Harry (Freddie Frederick) on a charge of theft and force the lad to leave the premises. Then Read More

Me, Gangster

Actors: June Collyer, Don Terry, Anders Randolf, Al Hill

Synopsis: Me, Gangster was director Raoul Walsh's third 1928 film -- and, according to some historians, the blueprint for such future Walsh crime dramas as Me and My Gal, The Roaring Twenties and White Heat. Told in the form of a diary, the story details the rise and fall of gangster boss Jimmy Williams Read More

The Night Flyer

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Jobyna Ralston, Philo McCullough

Synopsis: James Cruze was the producer-director of The Night Flyer, while Cecil B. DeMille served in an executive-producer capacity. DeMille contractee William Boyd stars as Jimmy Bradley, a two-fisted locomotive fireman. Jimmy is engaged to Kate Murphy (Jobyna Ralston), but she breaks it off when our hero Read More

Two Arabian Knights

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Mary Astor, Louis Wolheim

Synopsis: Produced by young aviation mogul Howard Hughes, Two Arabian Nights details the exploits of eternally squabbling sergeant Louis Wolheim and private William Boyd. Captured by the Germans during WWI, our heroes escape by disguising themselves as Arabs. This clever masquerade wins Wolheim and Boyd Read More

The Great Mail Robbery

Actors: Theodore Von Eltz, Frank Nelson, Jeanne Morgan, Lee Shumway, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: Veteran serial director George B. Seitz keeps things perpetually on the move in The Great Mail Robbery. Theodore von Eltz stars as Marine lieutenant Donald Macready, assigned by his commanding officer to squelch a train-robbery gang. Going undercover, Macready infiltrates the gang and monitors 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

Home Made

Actors: Johnny Hines, Marjorie Daw, Margaret Seddon, Maude Turner Gordon

Synopsis: Ever-smiling Johnny Hines plays a farm boy who supports himself and his mother (Margaret Seddon) by selling canned fruit preserves to tourists. Unfortunately, Hines is despised by his new stepfather (Edmund Breese), who kicks our hero off the farm. Stowing away on a Pullman car, Hines meets and Read More

Fire Brigade

Actors: May McAvoy, Charles Ray, Holmes Herbert, Tom O'Brien, Eugénie Besserer

Synopsis: Arguably the best of Charles Ray's four MGM vehicles, The Fire Brigade casts Ray as the youngest in a large and rambunctious family of Irish-American firemen. While his older siblings busy themselves with extinguishing blazes, Ray spends his time a-courting May McAvoy, the daughter of a wealthy Read More

Chip of the Flying U

Actors: Hoot Gibson, DeWitt Jennings, Harry Todd, Virginia Brown Faire, Philo McCullough

Synopsis: A remake of a 1915 Tom Mix/Selig Western, this film was yet another silent oater (loosely) based on a story by popular pulp fiction writer Peter B. Kyne. Hoot Gibson starred as Chip Bennett, a Flying U ranch hand-turned-cartoonist, who despite being a confirmed misogynist falls in love with Della Read More

While London Sleeps

Actors: DeWitt Jennings, Helene Costello, Otto Matiesen, Rin Tin Tin

Synopsis: Canine star Rin Tin Tin Jr. finds himself in foggy London town in this fast-paced meller. The story doesn't make much sense, but it seems to have something to do with a vicious "ape man" who holds the city in thrall. The hirsute villain overpowers hero Walter Merrill and abducts heroine Helene Costello Read More

Exit Smiling

Actors: Beatrice Lillie, Jack Pickford, Doris Lloyd, DeWitt Jennings, D'Arcy Corrigan

Synopsis: Exit Smiling is perhaps the only film that ever fully utilized the comic genius of the incomparable Beatrice Lillie. The star is cast as the wardrobe lady of a touring theatrical company. She is introduced to the audience via subtitle as "Violet, the drudge of the troupe...Who also plays parts Read More

Passionate Quest

Synopsis: Based on a 1923 novel by Edward Phillips Oppenheim and directed by film pioneer J. Stuart Blackton, this silent society drama featured May McAvoy, Gardner James, and Willard Louis attempting to free themselves from the negative influence of their guardian, De Witt Jennings. In London, McAvoy goes Read More

The Ice Flood

Actors: Kenneth Harlan, Viola Dana, George Irving, Fred Kohler, Norman Deming, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: A robust potboiler from Universal, The Ice Flood stars Kenneth Harlan as Jack De Quincey, a handsome youth returning from Oxford to take part in his father's Oregon lumber business. But Jack demands to work incognito and bets the elder DeQuincey (George Irving) 10,000 dollars that he will not only 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

The Splendid Road

Actors: Anna Q. Nilsson, Robert W. Frazer, Lionel Barrymore, Roy Laidlaw, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: This typically overblown Frank Lloyd-directed western takes place in the days of the California Gold Rush. Anna Q. Nilsson stars as Sandra De Hault, who heads to California in the company of three orphaned children she has adopted along the way. Taking up residence in a squalid shack, Sandra falls Read More

Go Straight

Actors: Gladys Hulette, Mary Carr, Owen Moore

Synopsis: Gladys Hulette stars in this romance about a girl crook determined to -- as the title implies -- go straight. The gang Gilda Hart belongs to believes she is merely a coward, but no matter, she heads for Hollywood with her aunt (Lillian Leighton). While Gilda gets a job in a bank and becomes Read More

Don't

Actors: Sally O'Neil, DeWitt Jennings, Ethel Wales, John Patrick, Bert Roach

Synopsis: Don't was an unfortunate choice of titles for this MGM programmer, since many filmgoers took the advice literally. Sally O'Neill plays Sally Moffett, a headstrong boarding-school girl who's determined to cut loose and have a good time despite the admonitions of her parents. Sally gets more than Read More

Re-Creation of Brian Kent

Synopsis: Harold Bell Wright, a popular author during the silent era, was known for his sentimental and unsophisticated stories. This film, based on one of his novels, was a good representation of his written work. Brian Kent (Kenneth Harlan) regrets stealing money from a Chicago bank and decides to kill Read More

Hit and Run

Synopsis: Hoot Gibson trades in his cowboy hat for a baseball bat in this comedy-drama. After an argument with the team's manager, baseball scout Red McCarthy (Mike Donlin) gets off the train in the middle of the Western desert. There's a baseball game going on in the tiny town, and McCarthy is stunned by Read More

Along Came Ruth

Actors: Viola Dana, Tully Marshall, Raymond McKee

Synopsis: Viola Dana plays Ruth Ambrose, a citified interior decorator who expands her business to the country. The locals don't quite know what to make of the sophisticated Ruth, but she soon wins them over. After renovating a general store, Ruth finds true love in the form of farm boy Raymond McKee. Read More

Silent Watcher

Actors: Glenn Hunter, Bessie Love, Hobart Bosworth, Gertrude Astor, George Nichols

Synopsis: After his impressive directorial effort on The Sea Hawk, Frank Lloyd made this far smaller and more intimate film. The idealistic Joe Roberts (Glenn Hunter) adores his wife Mary (Bessie Love) and looks up to his boss, John Steele (Hobart Bosworth), who is a candidate for U.S. senator. Steele Read More

By Divine Right

Actors: Anders Randolph, Elliott Dexter, Mildred Harris, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: A spectacular trains wreck -- courtesy of stock footage -- highlighted this otherwise pedestrian silent melodrama from low-budget producer Harry Asher. Mildred Harris, the first Mrs. Charles Chaplin, starred as a naive stenographer saved from the unwanted attention of her lecherous employer (Anders Randolf 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

Heart Bandit

Actors: Viola Dana, Milton Sills, Gertrude Claire, Wallace MacDonald, Bertram Grassby

Synopsis: Although Milton Sills was a leading man in his own right, he also supported many female stars of the silent era. In this crime drama he plays second fiddle to spunky Viola Dana. As "Angel Face Molly" O'Hara, Dana plays a part that is quite familiar to her fans -- that of a girl crook who reforms. Read More

Gaiety Girl

Actors: Mary Philbin, Joseph J. Dowling, William Haines, Grace Darmond, Otto Hoffman

Synopsis: Mary Philbin, whose performance in The Merry-Go-Round had earned her critical raves, stars in this rather lightweight Universal "Jewel." William Tudor (Joseph J. Dowling) is so overloaded with debt that he is forced to give up the family castle, Pencarreg. After selling it to John Kershaw (Dewitt Jennings Read More

Name the Man

Actors: Hobart Bosworth, Creighton Hale, Patsy Ruth Miller, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: This powerful drama, based on the novel The Master of Man, by Sir Hall Caine, was the first time Swedish director Victor Sjorstrom made a film in America. When her stepfather (De Witt Jennings) locks her out of the house, Bessie Collister (Mae Busch) finds refuge with Victor Stowell (Conrad Read More

The Deadwood Coach

Actors: Tom Mix, George Bancroft, DeWitt Jennings, Buster Gardner, Lucien Littlefield, Ernest Butterworth Jr.

Synopsis: Filmed on magnificent locations at Cedar City, Utah and Zion Canyon, this lavishly mounted Tom Mix Western was based on The Orphan by Clarence E. Mulford, the pulp writer who created Hopalong Cassidy. The story -- a man searches for the villains who murdered his parents -- was by no means new in Read More

The Enemy Sex

Synopsis: Betty Compson has solid support from some of the better character actors of the day in this adaptation of Owen Johnson's book The Salamander. She also found a supportive director in James Cruze, who she married in 1925. Dodo Baxter (Compson) has managed to walk a fine line as a gold-digging Read More

Desert Outlaw

Actors: Charles "Buck" Jones, Evelyn Brent, DeWitt Jennings, Robert Klein

Synopsis: Fox's also-ran cowboy star Buck Jones played a prospector falsely accused of murder in this silent Western, which benefitted from an above average supporting cast. Along with a fellow inmate, Jones escapes from prison. Hiding out with his newfound buddy's sister (Evelyn Brent), Jones manages not Read More

Within the Law

Actors: Norma Talmadge, Lew Cody, Eileen Percy, Joseph Kilgour

Synopsis: This is the second time Bayard Veiller's play made it to the silent screen (it would be made one more time in 1939 as a talkie). This version is a run-of-the-mill Norma Talmadge vehicle -- lots of high drama, with no expense spared, but in the end nothing much without its excellent cast. Talmadge Read More

Blinky

Actors: Hoot Gibson, Esther Ralston, Mathilde Brundage, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: Based on a magazine serial by Gene Markey, this film was turned into a perfect vehicle for Universal's lackadaisical cowboy hero Hoot Gibson. The bespectacled, dandified son of a veteran military officer (DeWitt Jennings), Geoffrey Arbuthnot Islip, nicknamed Blinky Gibson, is the butt of many Read More

Circus Days

Actors: Jackie Coogan, Barbara Tennant, Russell Simpson, Claire McDowell, Cesare Gravina

Synopsis: Circus Days is the first film version of the James Otis novel Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks With a Circus. Jackie Coogan plays 10-year-old Toby, who runs away from his abusive uncle to join the Big Top. The glamour of circus life tarnishes quickly for Toby, but he sticks it out, graduating from lowly Read More

Out of Luck

Actors: Laura La Plante

Synopsis: Hoot Gibson takes off his cowboy gear and dons a naval uniform in this comedy-drama. Sam Pertune (Gibson) is in love with Mae Day (Laura La Plante, who was Gibson's frequent co-star during this period). However, Mae's father Ezra Day (Howard Truesdell) isn't in love with Mae's romance with Read More

The Right That Failed

Synopsis: When prize fighter Johnny Duffey (Bert Lytell) breaks his hand, the doctor orders him to rest for three months before he returns to the ring. Vacationing in Craigmoor, he falls for society-debutante Constance Talbot (Virginia Valli) but later discovers she is engaged to the pompous Roy Van Twiller Read More

Face Between

Actors: Bert Lytell, Sylvia Breamer, Hardee Kirkland, Gerard Alexander

Synopsis: Bert Lytell stars in a double role of father and son in this confusing drama about love and self-sacrifice. Tommy Carteret Jr. is wrongly accused by Hartwell (Hardee Kirkland) of making improper advances towards Hartwell's wife. In reality it was Tommy's own father who was the perpetrator. Not Read More

Flesh and Blood

Synopsis: Lon Chaney Sr. plays David Webster, an honest lawyer unjustly sentenced to a 15-year jail term. Upon his release, Webster adopts a disguise so that he can get even with Fletcher Burton (Ralph Lewis), the man who framed him. The ex-convict is compelled to alter his plans when Burton's son (Jack Mulhall Read More

Mixed Facts

Actors: William Russell, Renée Adorée, DeWitt Jennings, Charles French

Synopsis: This comedy-melodrama made a poor vehicle for William Russell, even though he had a dual role. Jimmy Gallop, who sells fire extinguishers, is the exact double of Judge Granger, who is running for mayor (both are played by Russell). Even the Judge's girlfriend, Miss Sayre (Renee Adoree), mistakes Read More

Golden Snare

Actors: Lewis Stone, Wallace Beery, Melbourne MacDowell, Ruth Renick, Wellington Playter

Synopsis: Even in 1921, tales of the Northwest Mounted Police had already been done countless times before, so this drama -- based on a story by the dependable James Oliver Curwood -- was nothing new or special. Sergeant Philip Rainey (Lewis S. Stone) is out to get his man -- in this case, Bram Johnson (an Read More

Greater Claim

Actors: Shirley Mason, Raymond McKee, Edward McWade, Harry S. Northrup, Betty Shade

Synopsis: Alice Lake made a fine comic foil for Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and several other comics at the Keystone studios. In spite of this, she wanted to be a serious actress. Ironically her dramatic work has pretty much been forgotten. This average drama has good performances by Lake and DeWitt Jennings Read More

Ladyfingers

Actors: Bert Lytell, Ora Carew, Frank Elliott, Edythe Chapman, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: Bert Lytell stars in this delightful crook comedy. Because Rachel Stetherill (Edythe Chapman) disapproves of her daughter's choice for a husband, she disowns her. When the young woman dies, Rachel refuses to help her little boy, who is adopted by bank burglar "English Harry" Ashe. The boy grows up Read More

From the Ground Up

Actors: Tom Moore, Helene Chadwick, DeWitt Jennings, Grace Pike, Hardee Kirkland

Synopsis: Dependable leading man Tom Moore carries the lighthearted storyline of From the Ground Up. Moore is cast as a burly skyscraper worker who's a whole lot smarter than he looks. Before he, or we, quite know what is happening, Moore ends up owning the building on which he'd been working, and also wins Read More

The Invisible Power

Actors: House Peters, Irene Rich, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: In this silent crime melodrama, an ex-con marries a teacher and tries to start a new life in the city. Unfortunately, he is harassed by a detective who is looking for one of the ex-con's former gang mates. When the con refuses to cooperate, the detective frames him and gets him sent back to the Read More

The Poverty of Riches

Actors: Richard Dix, Leatrice Joy, John Bowers, Louise Lovely, Irene Rich

Synopsis: Leatrice Joy and Richard Dix play an ambitious couple in this domestic drama. John and Katherine Colby (Dix and Joy) decide to put off parenthood until he has become wealthy. Their friends, Tom and Grace Donaldson (John Bowers and Louise Lovely), decide to start a family right away. While John Read More

Sherlock Brown

Synopsis: Although this mystery-comedy came out mere weeks after John Barrymore portrayed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous character, it's not a spoof on Sherlock Holmes. Nevertheless, it's an amusing vehicle for Bert Lytell. The secret formula for the world's most powerful explosive has been stolen Read More

Beating the Game

Actors: Tom Moore, Hazel Daly, DeWitt Jennings, Nick Cogley

Synopsis: Fancy Charlie (Tom Moore) breaks into an apartment, but finds a cabinet full of burglar tools. This is a clear indication that he is robbing one of his own, and he is caught by the apartment's owner (DeWitt C. Jennings). The owner admits to his profession, but allows Charlie to leave if he will Read More

Alias Ladyfingers

There Are No Villains

Synopsis: Viola Dana plays a secret agent in this fluffy comedy-drama. Detective Flint (DeWitt Jennings) gives Rosa Moreland (Dana) an assignment to track down George Sala, an opium smuggler (Edward Cecil). To gather evidence, she shadows a man she believes to be aligned with Sala, John King (Gaston Glass) Read More

Nineteen and Phyllis

Actors: Charles Ray, George Nichols, Cora Drew

Synopsis: Charles Ray was almost 30 when he played 19-year-old Andy Cavanaugh, a love-struck country boy. That alone goes a long way to explain why Ray eventually grew weary of playing the young rural characters that were so popular with his fans. Nevertheless, he portrayed them very well, and he pulls off Read More

Out of Luck

Synopsis: Dorothy Gish stars as a superstitious young miss in this silly farce comedy. Frances Wadsworth (Gish) keeps her eyes on the stars, her hands on the cards, and a rabbit's foot in her pocket. She encourages her friend to elope because "Venus is on the ascendant" and then discovers that there is a Read More

Hillcrest Mystery

Synopsis: Dancing star Irene Castle was the leading lady of this combination murder mystery and espionage melodrama. Somewhat unconvincingly cast as the 19-year-old daughter of a wealthy shipyard owner, Mrs. Castle plunges into the thick of the intrigue when she champions the cause of her dad's secretary Read More

The Little American

Actors: DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: It would be easy to assume that combining Mary Pickford's charm with director Cecil B. DeMille's penchant for the spectacular would create an exceptional piece of work. But judging from this picture, and the one made before it -- Romance of the Redwoods -- that just wasn't the case. The bottom Read More

The Warrens of Virginia

Synopsis: 1915 was a big year for civil war films -- this powerful five-reeler was released around the same time as D.W. Griffith's landmark Birth of a Nation. The Warrens of Virginia was yet another collaboration between film producer Jesse Lasky and stage producer David Belasco. It had originally been a Read More