Dorothy CummingFilmography

Innocents of Paris

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Russell Simpson, George Fawcett

Synopsis: In this drama, a junkman, Maurice Chevalier in his American film debut, rescues a drowning boy from the Seine. The boy's mother had been attempting to kill herself and her son as well. The junkman cannot save the mother. He takes the boy to his grandfather. There he encounters the boy's aunt with Read More

Kitty

Actors: Estelle Brody, John Stuart, Dorothy Cumming, Marie Ault, Winter Hall

Synopsis: Basically a silent picture for most of its 92-minute running time, Kitty switches to sound during its last 2 1/2 reels. Handsome young aviator Alex St. George (John Stuart) is on the verge of marrying his sweetheart Kitty Greenwood (Estelle Brody) when he's called off to serve in WWI. Hoping to Read More

Applause

Actors: Helen Morgan, Joan Peers, Fuller Mellish, Jack Cameron, Henry Wadsworth

Synopsis: Stage director Rouben Mamoulian jolted the (at the time) moribund sound-film industry with innovative sound experiments and revolutionary camera techniques with his electrifying feature-film debut Applause. In this backstage musical tragedy, Kitty Darling (Helen Morgan), a big-time burlesque star Read More

Life's Mockery

Actors: Betty Compson, Theodore Von Eltz, Alec B. Francis, Dorothy Cumming, Russell Simpson

Synopsis: A prison melodrama with a heart, Life's Mockery starred Betty Compson as Kit Miller, the daughter of notorious gangster Wolf Miller (Russell Simpson). Fleeing the law, Kit is knocked unconscious and brought to a prison whose warden, John Fullerton (Alec B. Francis, believes that criminals may be Read More

The Divine Woman

Actors: Greta Garbo, Lars Hanson, Lowell Sherman, Polly Moran, Dorothy Cumming

Synopsis: One of the great directors of the silent era, Victor Sjostrom, teamed with fellow Swede Greta Garbo for this drama. The great Garbo plays Marianne, a young woman from Brittany who was neglected by her impoverished parents. Marianne longs to be an actress and moves to Paris, where theatrical Read More

Forbidden Hours

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Renée Adorée, Dorothy Cumming, Edward Connelly, Alberta Vaughn

Our Dancing Daughters

Actors: Joan Crawford, Johnny Mack Brown, Dorothy Sebastian, Anita Page, Kathlyn Williams

Synopsis: Even those who can't recall the plot of the silent Our Dancing Daughters (and there admittedly isn't much to remember) can never forget the indelible images of Joan Crawford tearing loose with one Charleston after another. Since everyone in the film is rich, the wild parties that dominate Our Read More

The Wind

Actors: Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love, Dorothy Cumming, Edward Earle

Synopsis: The Wind, Victor Sjostrom's final American film, is a western only in its locale: its symbolism-laden story of physical and spiritual repression, culminating in a violent, hysterical outburst, has more in common with the European or Scandanavian cinema than with the usual MGM product. Lillian Gish Read More

In Old Kentucky

Actors: James Murray, Helene Costello, Wesley Barry, Edward Martindel, Dorothy Cumming

Synopsis: Legendary (and, to some, infamous) African-American comedian Stepin Fetchit made his first screen appearance in In Old Kentucky. This second cinemazation of Charles T. Dazey's war-horse play throws out most of the original plot in favor of a new yarn involving a returning soldier (James Murray) Read More

The Lovelorn

Actors: Sally O'Neil, Molly O'Day, Larry Kent, Charles Delaney, Dorothy Cumming

Synopsis: The Lovelorn was inspired by the popular "advice" column by Beatrice Fairfax, here played by Dorothy Cumming. Heroine Georgie Hastings (Sally O'Neil) falls in love with Bill Warren (Larry Kent), who happens to be the new boyfriend of Georgie's sister Ann (played by Molly O'Day, O'Neil's real-life Read More

The King of Kings

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

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

Mademoiselle Modiste

Actors: Corinne Griffith, Norman Kerry, Willard Louis, Dorothy Cumming

Synopsis: Mademoiselle Modiste is based on the Victor Herbert-Henry Blossom operetta of the same name -- minus the music, of course. The incredibly gorgeous Corinne Griffith stars as Fifi, a personable salesgirl in a fancy Parisian dress shop. Impressed by Fifi's business skills, wealthy American tourist Read More

A Kiss for Cinderella

Actors: Betty Bronson, Tom Moore, Esther Ralston

Synopsis: As a whimsical adaption of James M. Barrie's stage version of the Cinderella story, this film was not immediately appreciated for the magic created by its cinematography. It has become a classic masterpiece, in the genre of similar films like Peter Pan. The story begins with a very young woman (Betty Bronson Read More

Dancing Mothers

Actors: Alice Joyce, Conway Tearle, Clara Bow, Donald Keith, Dorothy Cumming

Synopsis: Believe it or not, Betty Bronson, who starred in the title role of Peter Pan, was the first choice to play jazz baby Kittens Westcourt, the part which eventually went to Clara Bow. Kittens was the second lead, but Bow turned her into a sympathetic character and stole the show from the film's star Read More

Butterflies in the Rain

Actors: Edwards Davis, Robert Ober, Dorothy Cumming, Laura La Plante

Synopsis: Ninety percent of the silent films of director Edward H. Sloman have been lost to the ages, and Butterflies in the Rain is no exception. The story is set in London, where spoiled-brat heiress Laura LaPlante is the bane of her aristocratic family's existence. When a family of wealthy "commoners" Read More

For Wives Only

Actors: Marie Prevost, Victor Varconi, Charles Gerrard, Arthur Hoyt, Claude Gillingwater

Synopsis: For Wives Only was based on the stage play The Critical Year. The story takes place in Vienna, where handsome Dr. Rittenhaus (Victor Varconi) spends most of his time avoiding the amorous advances of his adoring female patients (shades of Lubitsch's The Marriage Circle). Hoping to use Rittenhaus' Read More

The New Commandment

Actors: Blanche Sweet, Ben Lyon, Holbrook Blinn, Clare Eames, Effie Shannon

Synopsis: Seven years after its end, there was a resurgence of films about World War I. This one, based on the novel Invisible Wounds by Colonel Frederick Palmer was pretty good, but a couple of weeks later, The Big Parade would come out and trounce every other World War film that was in distribution. Billy Read More

The Manicure Girl

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Edmund Burns, Dorothy Cumming, Hale Hamilton, Charlotte Walker

Synopsis: Maria Maretti (Bebe Daniels) works as a manicurist at a posh hotel. She is in love with Tony Luca (Edmund Burns), and they are saving up to buy a home and get married, but Maria isn't blind to what is going on around her. She watches the other girls take money and favors from their wealthy men Read More

Coast of Folly

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Alec B. Francis, Dorothy Cumming

Synopsis: Although this isn't one of her top pictures, Gloria Swanson was near the peak of her career when she made it. She's excellent in a dual role, and is directed by one of her favorite collaborators, Allan Dwan. Nadine Gathway, a turn-of-the-century belle (Swanson), dumps her priggish husband and runs Read More

Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model

Actors: Claire Windsor, Betsy Ann Hisle, Edmund Lowe, Mae Busch, Raymond Griffith

Synopsis: This famous old stage melodrama by Owen Davis is directed with a lot of spirit by Emmett J. Flynn and features a first rate cast. The overworked Robert Horton (Hobart Bosworth) convinces his friend Thomas Lipton (also played by Bosworth) to take his place for a year. Mrs. Horton (Dorothy Cummings) Read More

Female

Actors: Betty Compson, Warner Baxter, Noah Beery, Sr., Dorothy Cumming, Freeman Wood

Synopsis: Dalla (Betty Compson) is an untamed orphan of the South African veldt. She falls in love with Colonel Valentia, a noted English hunter (Warner Baxter), but his refined friends make fun of her crude ways. Hurt by their taunts, she decides to wed wealthy Boer Barend DeBeer (Noah Beery), under the Read More

Next Corner

Actors: Conway Tearle, Dorothy Mackaill, Lon Chaney, Ricardo Cortez, Louise Dresser

Synopsis: American engineer Robert Maury (Conway Tearle) travels to Paris with his wife, Elsie (Dorothy Mackaill). He leaves her there while he goes to Argentina on business. Elsie, like most neglected wives (at least in films), uses this opportunity to get into mischief -- she dresses exotically and draws Read More

Cheat

Actors: Pola Negri, Jack Holt, Charles de Roche, Dorothy Cumming, Robert Schable

Synopsis: Paramount brought the exotic Pola Negri over from Europe, and then it seemed like they didn't know what to do with her. Bella Donna proved to be a disappointment; nevertheless, the studio teamed their new star with the same director, George Fitzmaurice, for this melodrama, a remake of the 1915 Read More

Twenty-One

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Joe King, Dorothy Cumming, Dorothy Mackaill, Elsie Lawson

Synopsis: Although Richard Barthelmess was one of the bigger stars of the silent era, not all his films were worthy of his talents. This society drama was decidedly mediocre fare. The wealthy McCulloughs (Joe King and Dorothy Cumming) separate when their son, Julian, is seven. Mrs. McCullough convinces her Read More

The Man from Home

Actors: James Kirkwood, Anna Q. Nilsson, Geoffrey Kerr, Norman Kerry, Dorothy Cumming

Synopsis: The Booth Tarkington-Harry Leon Wilson play was filmed once previously, in 1914, by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel. For the 1922 version, director George Fitzmaurice seems to have relied more on the picturesque backgrounds -- it was filmed on location in England and Italy -- than he should have. Read More

Manslaughter

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Leatrice Joy, Lois Wilson, John Miltern, George Fawcett

Synopsis: This Cecil B. DeMille morality play came at just the right time -- the Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle scandal and William Desmond Taylor murder were both still fresh in the public's mind. Leatrice Joy plays Lydia Thorne, a rich society girl who is addicted to thrills. Because of her reckless driving, she Read More

Don't Tell Everything

Actors: Wallace Reid, Gloria Swanson, Elliott Dexter, Dorothy Cumming, Genevieve Blinn

Synopsis: According to trade paper Wid's, "If it happened that you got into your seat just after the introductory titles had been run off...you would probably go out fully impressed that Don't Tell Everything was a DeMille production." The reason for that, Gloria Swanson says in her autobiography, is Read More

The Notorious Miss Lisle

Synopsis: When Geanor Lisle (Katherine MacDonald) is named as correspondent in a divorce case, her parents (Margaret Campbell and Ernest Joy) take her to Brittany to wait until the scandal blows over. While there she meets and falls in love with Peter Garstin (Nigel Barrie). He refuses to listen to a word Read More

The Notorious Mrs. Sands

Synopsis: In this programmer, Bessie Barriscale plays Mary Ware, a society girl who is in love with Ronald Cliffe (Forrest Stanley), a formerly wealthy man who has lost his fortune. Mary's mother would much rather have her marry Gray Sands (Harry Meyers), who has enough money to pay off some of her debts. Read More

Snow White

Synopsis: Before becoming a silent screen star, Marguerite Clark played Snow White on the stage, and Famous Players eventually had her do the screen version. It's the classic Grimm fairy tale, with a few additions (at one point Santa Claus makes an appearance!): The evil Queen (Dorothy G. Cumming) wants Read More